Antarctic biodiversity database has ice-free areas covered

by Australian Antarctic Program
Jan. 30, 2025

Australian Antarctic Program scientists have released the most comprehensive database of species living in the ice-free areas of Antarctica, after 16 years of research.

More than 35,600 records, some more than 200 years old, have been consolidated into one central location.

The records comprise the location and identity of 1890 species, including mosses, lichens, fungi, invertebrates, microbes, birds and seals.

Australian Antarctic Division Program Leader, Dr Aleks Terauds, said ‘The Biodiversity of Ice-free Antarctica Database’ will underpin future regional and global studies of ecology, diversity and change. For example, the Antarctic ecosystem classification, recently published in Nature Scientific Data, relied heavily on the records in this database.

“The species represented in this database occur across all 16 ‘Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions’, which are distinct areas characterized by different climates, landscapes and species,” Dr Terauds said.

“By better understanding the location and diversity of species across these bioregions, and Antarctica generally, we can design better studies to understand ecological structure and function, and mitigate the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity.

Keep reading: https://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2025/antarctic-biodiversity-database-has-ice-free-areas-covered/

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.70000