The wildlife of Antarctica are

extremophiles An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...

, having to adapt to the dryness, low temperatures, and high exposure common in Antarctica. The extreme weather of the interior contrasts to the relatively mild conditions on the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...

and the subantarctic islands, which have warmer temperatures and more liquid water. Much of the ocean around the mainland is covered by

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oce ...

. The oceans themselves are a more stable environment for life, both in the

water column A water column is a conceptual column of water from the surface of a sea, river or lake to the bottom sediment.Munson, B.H., Axler, R., Hagley C., Host G., Merrick G., Richards C. (2004).Glossary. ''Water on the Web''. University of Minnesota-D ...

and on the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

. There is relatively little diversity in Antarctica compared to much of the rest of the world. Terrestrial life is concentrated in areas near the coast. Flying birds nest on the milder shores of the Peninsula and the subantarctic islands. Eight species of

penguins Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

inhabit Antarctica and its offshore islands. They share these areas with seven

pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae (whose only living member is the walru ...

species. The

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

around Antarctica is home to 10

cetacean Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...

s, many of them migratory. There are very few terrestrial

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s on the mainland, although the species that do live there have high population densities. High densities of invertebrates also live in the ocean, with

Antarctic krill Antarctic krill (''Euphausia superba'') is a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. It is a small, swimming crustacean that lives in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000–30,000 ind ...

forming dense and widespread swarms during the summer.

Benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

animal communities also exist around the continent. Over 1000

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

species have been found on and around Antarctica. Larger species are restricted to the subantarctic islands, and the majority of species discovered have been terrestrial.

Plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s are similarly restricted mostly to the subantarctic islands, and the western edge of the Peninsula. Some

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es and

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

are found around Antarctica, especially

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

, which form the basis of many of Antarctica's

food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one ...

s. Human activity has caused

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

to gain a foothold in the area, threatening the native wildlife. A history of

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

and

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

has left many species with greatly reduced numbers. Pollution,

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, and climate change pose great risks to the environment. The

Antarctic Treaty System russian: link=no, Договор об Антарктике es, link=no, Tratado Antártico , name = Antarctic Treaty System , image = Flag of the Antarctic Treaty.svgborder , image_width = 180px , caption ...

is a global treaty designed to preserve Antarctica as a place of research, and measures from this system are used to regulate

human activity Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity ( mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Kagan, Jerome, Marc H. Bornstein, and Richard M. L ...

in Antarctica.

Environmental conditions

Around 98% of continental Antarctica is covered in ice up to thick. Antarctica's icy deserts have extremely low temperatures, high solar radiation, and extreme dryness. Any precipitation that does fall usually falls as snow, and is restricted to a band around from the coast. Some areas receive as little as of precipitation annually. The coldest temperature recorded on Earth was at

Vostok Station Vostok Station (russian: :ru:Восток (антарктическая станция), ста́нция Восто́к, translit=stántsiya Vostók, , meaning "Station East") is a Russian Research stations in Antarctica, research station in ...

on the

Antarctic Plateau The Antarctic Plateau, Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau is a large area of East Antarctica which extends over a diameter of about , and includes the region of the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. This h ...

. Organisms that survive in Antarctica are often

extremophile An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...

s. The dry interior of the continent is climatically different from the western

and the subantarctic islands. The Peninsula and the islands are far more habitable; some areas of the peninsula can receive of precipitation a year, including rain, and the northern Peninsula is the only area on the mainland where temperatures are expected to go above in summer. The subantarctic islands have a milder temperature and more water, and so are more conducive to life. The surface temperature of the

varies very little, ranging from to . During the summer

covers of ocean. The

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

surrounding the mainland is wide. The depth of the seafloor in this area ranges from , with an average of . After the shelf, the continental slope descends to

abyssal plains An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between and . Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. T ...

at deep. In all these areas, 90% of the seafloor is made up of soft sediments, such as sand, mud, and gravel.

Animals

At least 235 marine species are found in both Antarctica and the Arctic, ranging in size from whales and birds to small marine snails, sea cucumbers, and mud-dwelling worms. The large animals often migrate between the two, and smaller animals are expected to be able to spread via underwater currents. However, among smaller marine animals generally assumed to be the same in the Antarctica and the Arctic, more detailed studies of each population have often—but not always—revealed differences, showing that they are closely related

cryptic species In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

rather than a single bipolar species. Antarctic animals have adapted to reduce heat loss, with mammals developing warm windproof coats and layers of

blubber Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized adipose tissue under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds, penguins, and sirenians. Description Lipid-rich, collagen fiber-laced blubber comprises the hypodermis and covers the whole body, except for pa ...

. Antarctica's cold deserts have some of the least diverse fauna in the world.

Terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

vertebrates are limited to sub-antarctic islands, and even then they are limited in number. Antarctica, including the subantarctic islands, has no natural fully terrestrial mammals, reptiles, or amphibians. Human activity has however led to the introduction in some areas of

foreign species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

, such as rats, mice, chickens, rabbits, cats, pigs, sheep, cattle,

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

, and various fish. Invertebrates, such as beetle species, have also been introduced. The

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

communities of the seafloor are diverse and dense, with up to 155,000 animals found in . As the seafloor environment is very similar all around the Antarctic, hundreds of species can be found all the way around the mainland, which is a uniquely wide distribution for such a large community. Polar and

deep-sea gigantism In zoology, deep-sea gigantism or abyssal gigantism is the tendency for species of invertebrates and other deep-sea dwelling animals to be larger than their shallower-water relatives across a large taxonomic range. Proposed explanations for thi ...

, where invertebrates are considerably larger than their warmer-water relatives, is common in this habitat. These two similar types of gigantism are believed to be related to the cold water, which can contain high levels of oxygen, combined with the low metabolic rates ("slow life") of animals living in such cold environments.

Birds

The rocky shores of mainland Antarctica and its offshore islands provide nesting space for over 100 million birds every spring. These nesters include species of

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...

es,

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

skua The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the long-tailed skua, the Arctic skua, and the pomarine skua are called ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

s and

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s. The insectivorous

South Georgia pipit The South Georgia pipit (''Anthus antarcticus'') is a sparrow-sized bird only found on the South Georgia archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the only songbird in Antarctica, South Georgia's only passerine, and one of the few non-seab ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to South Georgia and some smaller surrounding islands. Ducks, the

South Georgia pintail The South Georgia pintail (''Anas georgica georgica''), also misleadingly known as the South Georgian teal, is the nominate subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail (''Anas georgica''), a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. It is endemi ...

and Eaton's pintail, inhabit South Georgia,

Kerguelen The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a archipelago, group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the ...

and Crozet. The flightless

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

s are almost all located in the Southern Hemisphere (the only exception is the equatorial

Galapagos penguin The Galápagos penguin (''Spheniscus mendiculus'') is a penguin endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. It is the only penguin found north of the equator. Most inhabit Fernandina Island and the west coast of Isabela Island. The cool wate ...

), with the greatest concentration located on and around Antarctica. Four of the 18 penguin species live and breed on the mainland and its close offshore islands. Another four species live on the subantarctic islands.

Emperor penguins The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing from . Feathers of th ...

have four overlapping layers of feathers, keeping them warm. They are the only Antarctic animal to breed during the winter.

Fish

Compared to other major oceans, there are few fish species in few

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...

in the Southern Ocean. The most species-rich family are the

snailfish The Liparidae, commonly known as snailfish or sea snails, are a Family (biology), family of Saltwater fish, marine Scorpaeniformes, scorpaeniform fishes. Widely distributed from the Arctic Ocean, Arctic to Antarctic Oceans, including the ocea ...

(Liparidae), followed by the cod icefish (Nototheniidae) and

eelpout The eelpouts are the ray-finned fish family Zoarcidae. As the common name suggests, they are somewhat eel-like in appearance. All of the roughly 300 species are marine and mostly bottom-dwelling, some at great depths. Eelpouts are predominantly ...

s (Zoarcidae). Together the snailfish, eelpouts and

notothenioid Notothenioidei is one of 19 suborders of the order Perciformes. The group is found mainly in Antarctic and Subantarctic waters, with some species ranging north to southern Australia and southern South America. Notothenioids constitute approxi ...

s (which includes cod icefish and several other families) account for almost of the more than 320 described fish species in the Southern Ocean. Tens of

undescribed species In taxonomy, an undescribed taxon is a taxon (for example, a species) that has been discovered, but not yet formally described and named. The various Nomenclature Codes specify the requirements for a new taxon to be validly described and named. U ...

also occur in the region, especially among the snailfish. If strictly counting fish species of the Antarctic

and upper slope, there are more than 220 species and notothenioids dominate, both in number of species (more than 100) and

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

(more than 90%). Southern Ocean snailfish and eelpouts are generally found in deep waters, while the icefish also are common in shallower waters. In addition to the relatively species-rich families, the region is home to a few species from other families:

hagfish Hagfish, of the class Myxini (also known as Hyperotreti) and order Myxiniformes , are eel-shaped, slime-producing marine fish (occasionally called slime eels). They are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column, a ...

(Myxinidae),

lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are an ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes , placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like s ...

(Petromyzontidae), skates (Rajidae),

pearlfish Pearlfish are marine fish in the ray-finned fish family Carapidae. Pearlfishes inhabit the tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans at depths to , along oceanic shelves and slopes. They are slender, elongated fish with no ...

(Carapidae), morid cods (Moridae), eel cods (Muraenolepididae), gadid cods (Gadidae), horsefish (Congiopodidae), Antarctic sculpins (Bathylutichthyidae),

triplefin Threefin or triplefin blennies are blenniiforms, small percomorph marine fish of the family Tripterygiidae. Found in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the family contains about 150 species in 30 genera. Th ...

s (Tripterygiidae) and

southern flounder The southern (or armless) flounders are a small family, Achiropsettidae, of flounders found in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters. There are four genera, each with one species. The bodies of southern flounders are greatly compressed, with both ...

s (Achiropsettidae). Among fish found south of the

Antarctic Convergence The Antarctic Convergence or Antarctic Polar Front is a marine belt encircling Antarctica, varying in latitude seasonally, where cold, northward-flowing Antarctic waters meet the relatively warmer waters of the sub-Antarctic. Antarctic waters pr ...

, almost 90% of the species are

to the region.

Icefish

Cod icefish (Nototheniidae), as well as several other families, are part of the

Notothenioidei Notothenioidei is one of 19 suborders of the order Perciformes. The group is found mainly in Antarctic and Subantarctic waters, with some species ranging north to southern Australia and southern South America. Notothenioids constitute approx ...

suborder, collectively sometimes referred to as icefish. The suborder contains many species with

antifreeze protein Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) or ice structuring proteins refer to a class of polypeptides produced by certain animals, plants, fungi and bacteria that permit their survival in temperatures below the freezing point of water. AFPs bind to small ...

s in their blood and tissue, allowing them to live in water that is around or slightly below . Antifreeze proteins are also known from Southern Ocean snailfish and eelpouts. There are two icefish species from the genus ''

Dissostichus ''Dissostichus'', the toothfish, is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefish. These fish are found in the Southern Hemisphere. Toothfish are marketed in the United States as Chilean ...

'', the Antarctic toothfish (''D. mawsoni'') and the

Patagonian toothfish The Patagonian toothfish (''Dissostichus eleginoides'') is a species of notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most ...

(''D. eleginoides''), which by far are the largest fish in the Southern Ocean. These two species live on the seafloor from relatively shallow water to depths of , and can grow to around long weighing up to , living up to 45 years. The Antarctic toothfish lives close to the Antarctic mainland, whereas the Patagonian toothfish lives in the relatively warmer subantarctic waters. Toothfish are commercially fished, and illegal overfishing has reduced toothfish populations. Another abundant icefish group is the genus ''

Notothenia ''Notothenia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefishes with the species in this genus often having the common name of rockcod. They are native to the Southern Ocean and other wa ...

'', which like the Antarctic toothfish have antifreeze in their bodies. An unusual species of icefish is the

Antarctic silverfish The Antarctic silverfish (''Pleuragramma antarctica''), or Antarctic herring, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefishes. It is native to the Southern Ocean and the only truly pela ...

(''Pleuragramma antarcticum''), which is the only truly

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

fish in the waters near Antarctica.

Mammals

Seven

species inhabit Antarctica. The largest, the

Southern elephant seal The southern elephant seal (''Mirounga leonina'') is one of two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets it ...

(''Mirounga leonina''), can reach up to and over long, while females of the smallest, the

Antarctic fur seal The Antarctic fur seal (''Arctocephalus gazella''), is one of eight seals in the genus ''Arctocephalus'', and one of nine fur seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. Despite what its name suggests, the Antarctic fur seal is mostly distributed i ...

(''Arctophoca'' ''gazella''), reach only . These two species live north of the sea ice, and breed in

harems Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...

on beaches. The other four species can live on the sea ice.

Crabeater seal The crabeater seal (''Lobodon carcinophaga''), also known as the krill-eater seal, is a true seal with a circumpolar distribution around the coast of Antarctica. They are medium- to large-sized (over 2 m in length), relatively slender and pale-c ...

s (''Lobodon carcinophagus'') and

Weddell seal The Weddell seal (''Leptonychotes weddellii'') is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by British sealing ...

s (''Leptonychotes weddellii'') form breeding colonies, whereas

leopard seal The leopard seal (''Hydrurga leptonyx''), also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the southern elephant seal). Its only natural predator is the orca. It feeds on a wide range of prey incl ...

s (''Hydrurga leptonyx'') and

Ross seal The Ross seal (''Ommatophoca rossii'') is a true seal (family Phocidae) with a range confined entirely to the pack ice of Antarctica. It is the only species of the genus ''Ommatophoca''. First described during the Ross expedition in 1841, it is ...

s (''Ommatophoca rossii'') live solitary lives. Although these species hunt underwater, they breed on land or ice and spend a great deal of time there, as they have no terrestrial predators. The four species that inhabit sea ice are thought to make up 50% of the total biomass of the world's seals. Crabeater seals have a population of around 15 million, making them one of the most numerous large animals on the planet. The

New Zealand sea lion The New Zealand sea lion (''Phocarctos hookeri''), once known as Hooker's sea lion, and as or (male) and (female) in Māori, is a species of sea lion that is endemic to New Zealand and primarily breeds on New Zealand's subantarctic Auckland ...

(''Phocarctos hookeri''), one of the rarest and most localised pinnipeds, breeds almost exclusively on the subantarctic

Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands (Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, ...

, although historically it had a wider range. Out of all permanent mammalian residents, the Weddell seals live the furthest south. There are 10

species found in the Southern Ocean; six

baleen whale Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, are a parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their ...

s, and four

toothed whale The toothed whales (also called odontocetes, systematic name Odontoceti) are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. Seventy-three species of ...

s. The largest of these, the

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

(''Balaenoptera musculus''), grows to long weighing 84 tonnes. Many of these species are migratory, and travel to

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

waters during the Antarctic winter.

Orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only Extant taxon, extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black ...

s, which do not migrate, nonetheless regularly travel to warmer waters, possibly to relieve the stress the temperature has on their skin.

Land invertebrates

Most terrestrial

s are restricted to the sub-Antarctic islands. Although there are very few species, those that do inhabit Antarctica have high population densities. In the more extreme areas of the mainland, such as the cold deserts,

s are sometimes restricted to three

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

species, only one of which is a

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

. Many invertebrates on the subantarctic islands can live in subzero temperatures without freezing, whereas those on the mainland can survive being frozen. Mites and

springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ento ...

s make up most terrestrial

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

species, although various spiders, beetles, and flies can be found. Several thousand individuals from various mite and springtail species can be found in . Beetles and flies are the most species rich insect groups on the islands. Insects play an important role in recycling dead plant material. The mainland of Antarctica has no macro-arthropods. Micro-arthropods are restricted to areas with vegetation and nutrients provided by the presence of vertebrates, and where liquid water can be found. ''

Belgica antarctica ''Belgica antarctica'', the Antarctic midge, is a species of flightless midge, endemic to the continent of Antarctica. At long, it is the largest purely terrestrial animal native to the continent. It also has the smallest known insect genome as ...

'', a wingless

midge A midge is any small fly, including species in several families of non-mosquito Nematoceran Diptera. Midges are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land area outside permanently arid deserts and the frigid zones. Some mid ...

, is the only true insect found on the mainland. With sizes ranging from , it is the mainland's largest terrestrial animal. Many terrestrial earthworms and molluscs, along with micro-invertebrates, such as

tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär ...

s, and

rotifer The rotifers (, from the Latin , "wheel", and , "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. They were first described by Rev. John H ...

s, are also found. Earthworms, along with insects, are important

decomposer Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms; they carry out decomposition, a process possible by only certain kingdoms, such as fungi. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use o ...

s. The

''Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni'' is

and restricted to southern

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. It ...

between Mt. George Murray (75°55′S) and

Minna Bluff Minna Bluff is a rocky promontory at the eastern end of a volcanic Antarctic peninsula projecting deep into the Ross Ice Shelf at . It forms a long, narrow arm which culminates in a south-pointing hook feature (Minna Hook), and is the subject of re ...

(78°28′S) and to the adjacent nearshore islands. Insects endemic to Antarctica include: *'' Belgica albipes'', a midge *''

'', a midge *''

Siphlopteryx antarctica ''Siphlopteryx'' is a genus of flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the h ...

'', a fly

Springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ento ...

species identified in recent research: *'' Antarcticinella monoculata'' *''

Cryptopygus antarcticus The Antarctic springtail, ''Cryptopygus antarcticus'', is a species of springtail native to Antarctica and Australia. ''Cryptopygus antarcticus'' average long and weigh only a few micrograms. Like other springtails, the Antarctic springtai ...

'' *''

Desoria klovstadi ''Desoria klovstadi'' is a species of springtails, native to Antarctica. It was one of the first Antarctic species, from the class of collemba, to be described. Taxonomy The desoria klovstadi was first collected in November 1899 during the ...

'' *'' Friesea grisea'' *'' Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni'' *'' Gressittacantha terranova'' *'' Neocryptopygus nivicolus''

Mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

species identified in recent research: *'' Coccorhagidia keithi'' *'' Nanorchestes antarcticus'' *'' Stereotydeus mollis'' *''

Tydeus setsukoae Tydeus (; Ancient Greek: Τυδεύς ''Tūdeus'') was an Aetolian hero in Greek mythology, belonging to the generation before the Trojan War. He was one of the Seven against Thebes, and the father of Diomedes, who is frequently known by the patr ...

Marine invertebrates

Arthropods

Five species of

krill Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in n ...

, small free-swimming

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

, are found in the Southern Ocean. The

(''Euphausia superba'') is one of the most abundant animal species on earth, with a

of around 500 million tonnes. Each individual is long and weighs over . The swarms that form can stretch for kilometres, with up to 30,000 individuals per , turning the water red. Swarms usually remain in deep water during the day, ascending during the night to feed on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

. Many larger animals depend on krill for their own survival. During the winter when food is scarce, adult Antarctic krill can revert to a smaller juvenile stage, using their own body as nutrition. Many benthic crustaceans have a non-seasonal breeding cycle, and some raise their eggs and young in a brood pouch (they lack a pelagic larvae stage). ''

Glyptonotus antarcticus ''Glyptonotus antarcticus'' is a benthic marine isopod crustacean in the suborder Valvifera. This relatively large isopod is found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. It was first described by James Eights in 1852 and the type locality ...

'' at up to in length and in weight, and '' Ceratoserolis trilobitoides'' at up to in length are unusually large benthic

isopod Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

s and examples of Polar gigantism.

Amphipods Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descri ...

are abundant in soft sediments, eating a range of items, from

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

to other animals. The amphipods are highly diverse with more than 600 recognized species found south of the Antarctic Convergence and there are indications that many undescribed species remain. Among these are several "giants", such as the iconic epimeriids that are up to long. Crabs have traditionally not been recognized as part of the fauna in the Antarctic region, but studies in the last few decades have found a few species (mostly

king crab King crabs are a taxon of decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab (''Paralithodes camtsch ...

s) in deep water. This initially led to fears (frequently quoted in the mainstream media) that they were invading from more northern regions because of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and possibly could cause serious damage to the native fauna, but more recent studies show they too are native and formerly simply had been overlooked. Nevertheless, many species from these southern oceans are extremely vulnerable to temperature changes, being unable to survive even a small warming of the water. Although a few specimens of the non-native

great spider crab The great spider crab, ''Hyas araneus'', is a species of crab found in northeast Atlantic waters and the North Sea, usually below the tidal zone. In 1986, two specimens were captured at the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula ...

(''Hyas araneus'') were captured at the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

in 1986, there have been no further records from the region. Slow moving

sea spider Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the order Pantopoda ( ‘all feet’), belonging to the class Pycnogonida, hence they are also called pycnogonids (; named after ''Pycnogonum'', the type genus; with the suffix '). They are cosmopolitan, fou ...

s are common, sometimes growing up to about in leg span (another example of Polar gigantism). Roughly 20% of the sea spider species in the world are from Antarctic waters. They feed on the

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s, and

bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a l ...

ns that litter the seabed.

Molluscs

Many aquatic

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

s are present in Antarctica.

Bivalves Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

such as ''

Adamussium colbecki The Antarctic scallop (''Adamussium colbecki'') is a species of bivalve mollusc in the large family of scallops, the Pectinidae. It was thought to be the only species in the genus ''Adamussium'' until an extinct Pliocene species was described ...

'' move around on the seafloor, while others such as '' Laternula elliptica'' live in burrows

filtering Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...

the water above. There are around 70

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

species in the Southern Ocean, the largest of which is the

colossal squid The colossal squid (''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'') is part of the family Cranchiidae. It is sometimes called the Antarctic squid or giant cranch squid and is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass. It is the only recognized ...

(''Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni''), which at up to is among the largest invertebrates in the world.

Squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

make up most of the diet of some animals, such as

grey-headed albatross The grey-headed albatross (''Thalassarche chrysostoma'') also known as the gray-headed mollymawk, is a large seabird from the albatross family. It has a circumpolar distribution, nesting on isolated islands in the Southern Ocean and feeding at h ...

es and

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

s, and the warty squid (''Moroteuthis ingens'') is one of the subantarctic's most preyed upon species by vertebrates.

Other marine invertebrates

The red Antarctic sea urchin (''Sterechinus neumayeri'') has been used in several studies and has become a

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

. This is by far the best-known sea urchin of the region, but not the only species. Among others, the Southern Ocean is also home to the genus ''

Abatus ''Abatus'' is a genus of sea urchins belonging to the family Schizasteridae. The species of this genus are found in Antarctica and southernmost America. Species: *'' Abatus agassizii'' *'' Abatus beatriceae'' *'' Abatus cavernosus'' *'' A ...

'' that burrow through the sediment eating the nutrients they find in it. Several species of

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomo ...

s and sea stars live in Antarctic waters, including the ecologically important ''

Odontaster validus ''Odontaster validus'' is a species of sea star in the family Odontasteridae. Its range includes the Southern Ocean and the seas around the mainland and islands of Antarctica. Description ''Odontaster validus'' can grow to about 10 cm (4&n ...

'' and the long-armed '' Labidiaster annulatus''. Two species of

salp A salp (plural salps, also known colloquially as “sea grape”) or salpa (plural salpae or salpas) is a barrel-shaped, planktic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thereby pumping water through its gelatinous body, one of the most efficient ...

s are common in Antarctic waters, '' Salpa thompsoni'' and ''

Ihlea racovitzai ''Ihlea'' is a genus of tunicates belonging to the family Salpidae. The species of this genus are found in America, Australia, Antarctica. Species: *''Ihlea magalhanica'' *''Ihlea punctata ''Ihlea'' is a genus of tunicates belonging to the ...

''. ''Salpa thompsoni'' is found in ice-free areas, whereas ''Ihlea racovitzai'' is found in the high latitude areas near ice. Due to their low nutritional value, they are normally only eaten by fish, with larger animals such as birds and marine mammals only eating them when other food is scarce. Several species of marine worms are found in the Southern Ocean, including '' Parborlasia corrugatus'' and ''

Eulagisca gigantea ''Eulagisca gigantea'' is a scale worm that is widely distributed around Antarctica and the Southern Ocean at depths of about . Description ''Eulagisca gigantea'' can grow to a length of and a width of . It is dorso-ventrally flattened and has ...

'', which at lengths up to and respectively are examples of Polar gigantism. Like several other marine species of the region, Antarctic

s are long-lived. They are sensitive to environmental changes due to the specificity of the

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

microbial communities within them. As a result, they function as indicators of environmental health. The largest is the whitish or dull yellowish ''

Anoxycalyx joubini ''Anoxycalyx joubini'' is a species of Antarctic sponge. The species may have an extremely long lifespan, with estimates of up to 1,500 years. ''A. joubini'' occurs in deeper waters than the similar species ''Cinachyra antarctica ''Cinachyra ...

'', sometimes called the giant volcano sponge in reference to its shape. It can reach a height of and is an important habitat for several smaller organisms. Long-term observation of individuals of this locally common

glass sponge Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed siliceous spicules, often referred to as glass sponges. They are usually classified along with other sponges in the phylum Porifera, but some researchers consider ...

revealed no growth, leading to suggestions of a huge age, perhaps up to 15,000 years (making it one of the longest-lived organisms). However, more recent observations have revealed a highly variable growth rate where individuals seemingly could lack any visible growth for decades, but another was observed to increase its size by almost 30% in only two years and one reached a weight of in about 20 years or less. Jellyfish are also found there, with 2 examples being the Ross Sea jellyfish and the cobweb jellyfish or giant Antarctic jellyfish. The former is small, at in diameter, while the latter can have 1 metre bell diameter and 5-metre-long tentacles.

Fungi

Fungal A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...

diversity in Antarctica is lower than in the rest of the world. Individual niches, determined by environmental factors, are filled by very few species. Roughly 1150 fungi species have been identified.

Lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. while 750 are non-lichenised. Only around 20 species of fungi are macroscopic. The non-lichenised species come from 416 different genera, representing all major fungi phyla. The first fungi identified from the sub-antarctic islands was '' Peziza kerguelensis'', which was described in 1847. In 1898 the first species from the mainland, '' Sclerotium antarcticum'', was sampled. Far more terrestrial species have been identified than marine species. Larger species are restricted to the sub-antarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. Parasitic species have been found in ecological situations different from the one they are associated with elsewhere, such as infecting a different type of host. Less than 2-3% of species are thought to be

. Many species are shared with areas of the Arctic. Most fungi are thought to have arrived in Antarctica via airborne currents or birds. The genus '' Thelebolus'' for example, arrived on birds some times ago, but have since evolved local strains. Of the non-lichenised species of fungi and closer relatives of fungi discovered, 63% are

ascomycota Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...

, 23% are

basidiomycota Basidiomycota () is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basi ...

, 5% are

zygomycota Zygomycota, or zygote fungi, is a former division or phylum of the kingdom Fungi. The members are now part of two phyla: the Mucoromycota and Zoopagomycota. Approximately 1060 species are known. They are mostly terrestrial in habitat, living i ...

, and 3% are

chytridiomycota Chytridiomycota are a division of zoosporic organisms in the kingdom Fungi, informally known as chytrids. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning "little pot", describing the structure containing unreleased zoöspores. Chytri ...

. The myxomycota and

oomycota Oomycota forms a distinct phylogenetic lineage of fungus-like eukaryotic microorganisms, called oomycetes (). They are filamentous and heterotrophic, and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sexual reproduction of an oospore is the result ...

make up 1% each, although they are not true fungi. The desert surface is hostile to microscopic fungi due to large fluctuations in temperature on the surface of rocks, which range from 2 °C below the air temperature in the winter to 20 °C above air temperature in the summer. However, the more stable nanoenvironments inside the rocks allow microbial populations to develop. Most communities consist of only a few species. The most studied community occurs in sandstone, and different species arrange themselves in bands at different depths from the rock surface. Microscopic fungi, especially

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...

s, have been found in all antarctic environments. Antarctica has around 400

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. They are highly adapted, and can be divided into three main types;

crustose Crustose is a habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the substrates at all points. ''Crustose'' is found on rocks ...

lichens, forming thin crusts on the surface,

foliose Foliose lichen is one of the morphological classes of lichens, which are complex organisms that arise from the symbiotic relationship between fungi and a photosynthetic partner, typically algae. This partnership allows lichen to live in diverse ...

lichens, forming leaf-like lobes, and

fruticose lichens A fruticose lichen is a form of lichen fungi that is characterized by a coral-like shrubby or bushy growth structure. It is formed from a symbiotic relationship of a photobiont such as green algae or less commonly cyanobacteria and one, two or ...

, which grow like shrubs. Species are generally divided between those found on the subantarctic islands, those found on the Peninsula, those found elsewhere on the mainland, and those with disjointed distribution. The furthest south a lichen has been identified is 86°30'. Growth rates range from every 100 years in the more favourable areas to every 1000 years in the more inhospitable areas, and usually occurs when the lichen are protected from the elements with a thin layer of snow, which they can often absorb water vapour from.

Lichens

Macrolichens (e.g., '' Usnea sphacelata'', '' U. antarctica'', '' Umbilicaria decussate'', and '' U. aprina'') and communities of weakly or non-nitrophilous lichens (e.g., '' Pseudephebe minuscula'', '' Rhizocarpon superficial'', and '' R. geographicum'', and several species of '' Acarospora'' and ''

Buellia ''Buellia'' is a genus of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the family Caliciaceae. The fungi are usually part of a crustose lichen. In this case, the lichen species is given the same name as the fungus. But members may also grow as parasites on li ...

'') are relatively widespread in coastal ice-free areas. Sites with substrates influenced by seabirds are colonized by well-developed communities of nitrophilous lichen species such as '' Caloplaca athallina'', '' C. citrina'', '' Candelariella flava'', '' Lecanora expectans'', '' Physcia caesia'', '' Rhizoplaca melanophthalma'', ''

Xanthoria elegans ''Xanthoria elegans'', commonly known as the elegant sunburst lichen, is a lichenized species of fungus in the genus ''Xanthoria'', family Teloschistaceae. Recognized by its bright orange or red pigmentation, this species grows on rocks, often ne ...

'', and '' X. mawsonii''. In the

Dry Valleys The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ice from nearby ...

the normally

epilithic Lithophytes are plants that grow in or on rocks. They can be classified as either epilithic (or epipetric) or endolithic; epilithic lithophytes grow on the surfaces of rocks, while endolithic lithophytes grow in the crevices of rocks (and are also ...

lichen species ('' Acarospora gwynnii'', '' Buellia frigida'', '' B. grisea'', '' B. pallida'', ''

Carbonea vorticosa ''Carbonea'' is a genus of fungi in the family Lecanoraceae. Most of the species grow on lichens. The genus is widespread, and contains 20 species. ''Carbonea'' was originally circumscribed as a subgenus of ''Lecidea'' in 1967 before it was p ...

'', '' Lecanora fuscobrunnea'', '' L. cancriformis'', and '' Lecidella siplei'') are found primarily in protected niches beneath the rock surface occupying a cryptoendolithic ecological niche.

Lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. *'' Acarospora'' spp. **'' Acarospora gwynnii'' *''

'' spp. **'' Buellia frigida'' **'' Buellia grisea'' **''

Buellia pallida ''Buellia'' is a genus of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the family Caliciaceae. The fungi are usually part of a crustose lichen. In this case, the lichen species is given the same name as the fungus. But members may also grow as parasites on li ...

'' *'' Caloplaca athallina'' *'' Caloplaca citrina'' *'' Candelariella flava'' *''

'' (form. '' Carbonea capsulata'') *'' Lecanora cancriformis'' *'' Lecanora expectans'' *'' Lecanora fuscobrunnea'' *'' Lecidella siplei'' (form. '' Lecidea siplei'') *'' Physcia caesia'' *'' Pseudephebe minuscula'' *''

Rhizocarpon geographicum ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' (the map lichen) is a species of lichen, which grows on rocks in mountainous areas of low air pollution. Each lichen is a flat patch bordered by a black line of fungal hyphae. These patches grow adjacent to each other ...

'' *'' Rhizocarpon superficial'' *'' Rhizoplaca melanophthalma'' *''

Umbilicaria aprina Rock tripe is the common name for various lichens of the genus ''Umbilicaria'' that grow on rocks. They are widely distributed, including on bare rock in Antarctica, and throughout northern parts of North America such as New England and the Rocky ...

'' *'' Umbilicaria decussate'' *'' Usnea antarctica'' *'' Usnea sphacelata'' *''

'' *'' Xanthoria mawsonii''

Plants

The greatest

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

diversity is found on the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. Coastal algal blooms can cover up to of the peninsula. Well-adapted moss and lichen can be found in rocks throughout the continent. The subantarctic islands are a more favourable environment for plant growth than the mainland. Human activities, especially

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

and sealing, have caused many introduced species to gain a foothold on the islands, some quite successfully. Some plant communities exist around

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

s, vents emitting steam and gas that can reach at around below the surface. This produces a warmer environment with liquid water due to melting snow and ice. The active volcano

Mount Erebus Mount Erebus () is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley), the highest active volcano in Antarctica, and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth-highest ultra mountain on the continent. With a summ ...

and the dormant

Mount Melbourne Mount Melbourne is a ice-covered stratovolcano in Victoria Land, Antarctica, between Wood Bay and Terra Nova Bay. It is an elongated mountain with a summit caldera filled with ice with numerous parasitic vents; a volcanic field surrounds the e ...

, both in the continent's interior, each host a fumarole. Two fumaroles also exist on the subantarctic islands, one caused by a dormant volcano on

Deception Island Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands close to the Antarctic Peninsula with a large and usually "safe" natural harbor, which is occasionally troubled by the underlying active volcano. This island is the caldera of an acti ...

in the South Shetland Islands and one on the

South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...

. The fumarole on Deception Island also supports moss species found nowhere else in Antarctica. Antarctic Pearlwort

The

bryophytes The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited i ...

of Antarctica consist of 100 species of

es, and about 25 species of

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of g ...

s. While not being as widespread as lichens, they remain ubiquitous wherever plants can grow, with ''

Ceratodon purpureus ''Ceratodon purpureus'' is a dioicous moss with a color ranging from yellow-green to red. The height amounts to 3 centimeters. It is found worldwide, mainly in urban areas and next to roads on dry sand soils. It can grow in a very wide variety o ...

'' being found as far south as 84°30' on

Mount Kyffin The Commonwealth Range is a north-south trending range of rugged mountains, long, located within the Queen Maud Mountains on the Dufek Coast of the continent of Antarctica. The range borders the eastern side of Beardmore Glacier from the Ross I ...

. Unlike most bryophytes, a majority of Antarctic bryophytes do not enter a diploid

sporophyte A sporophyte () is the diploid multicellular stage in the life cycle of a plant or alga which produces asexual spores. This stage alternates with a multicellular haploid gametophyte phase. Life cycle The sporophyte develops from the zygote pr ...

stage, instead they reproduce asexually or have sex organs on their

gametophyte A gametophyte () is one of the two alternation of generations, alternating multicellular organism, multicellular phases in the life cycles of plants and algae. It is a haploid multicellular organism that develops from a haploid spore that has on ...

stage. Only 30% of bryophytes on the Peninsular and subantarctic islands have a sporophyte stage, and only 25% of those on the rest of the mainland produce sporophytes. The Mount Melbourne fumarole supports the only Antarctic population of '' Campylopus pyriformis'', which is otherwise found in Europe and South Africa. Subantarctic flora is dominated by the coastal

tussock grass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

, that can grow up to . Only two

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s inhabit continental Antarctica, the

Antarctic hair grass ''Deschampsia antarctica'', the Antarctic hair grass, is one of two flowering plants native to Antarctica, the other being '' Colobanthus quitensis'' (Antarctic pearlwort). They mainly occur on the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Island ...

(''Deschampsia antarctica'') and the

Antarctic pearlwort ''Colobanthus quitensis'', the Antarctic pearlwort, is one of two native flowering plants found in the Antarctic region. It has yellow flowers and grows about 5 cm (two inches) tall, with a cushion-like growth habit that gives it a moss-like appe ...

(''Colobanthus quitensis''). Both are found only on the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula and on two nearby island groups, the

South Orkney Islands The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Mosses

The moss species '' Campylopus pyriformis'' is restricted to geothermal sites.

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

species identified in recent research: *''

Anomobryum subrotundifolium ''Anomobryum'' is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Bryaceae. The genus was first described by Wilhelm Philippe Schimper. The genus has cosmopolitan distribution. Species: *'' Anomobryum albo-imbricatum'' T. Koponen & Norris, 1984 * ...

'' *''

Bryoerythrophyllum recurvirostre ''Bryoerythrophyllum'' is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Pottiaceae. It was first described by Pan Chieh Chen and has a cosmopolitan distribution. Species The following species are recognised in the genus ''Bryoerythrophyllum'': *''B ...

'' *'' Bryum anomobryum'' *''

Bryum pseudotriquetrum ''Ptychostomum pseudotriquetrum'', commonly known as marsh bryum, is a species of moss belonging to the family Bryaceae. It has cosmopolitan distribution. There are two subspecies, Bryum pseudotriquetrum var. pseudotriquetrum and Bryum pseudotri ...

'' *'' Campylopus pyriformis'' *'' Cephaloziella varians'' *''

'' *'' Didymodon brachyphyllus'' *'' Grimmia plagiopodia'' *'' Hennediella heimii'' *'' Pohlia nutans'' *'' Sarconeurum glaciale'' *'' Schistidium antarctici'' (form. '' Grimmia antarctici'') *'' Syntrichia princeps''

Others

Bacteria have been revived from Antarctic snow hundreds of years old. They have also been found deep under the ice, in

Lake Whillans Lake Whillans is a subglacial lake in Antarctica. The lake is located under the Whillans Ice Stream at the southeastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in the west of the continent. The lake surface is beneath the surface of the ice and the lake cov ...

, part of a network of

subglacial lake A subglacial lake is a lake that is found under a glacier, typically beneath an ice cap or ice sheet. Subglacial lakes form at the boundary between ice and the underlying bedrock, where gravitational pressure decreases the pressure melting point ...

s that sunlight does not reach. A wide variety of

are found in Antarctica, often forming the base of food webs. About 400 species of single-celled

that float in the water column of the Southern Ocean have been identified. These

bloom annually in the spring and summer as day length increases and sea ice retreats, before lowering in number during the winter. Other algae live in or on the sea ice, often on its underside, or on the

in shallow areas. Over 700 seaweed species have been identified, of which 35% are endemic. Outside of the ocean many algae are found in freshwater both on the continent and on the subantarctic islands. Terrestrial algae, such as

snow algae Snow algae are a group of freshwater micro-algae which grow in the alpine and polar regions of the earth. These algae have been observed to come in a variety of colors associated with both the individual species, stage of life or topography/geogra ...

, have been found living in soil as far south as 86° 29'. Most are single-celled. In summer algal blooms can cause snow and ice to appear red, green, orange, or grey. These blooms can reach about 10⁶ cells per mL. The dominant group of snow algae is

chlamydomonas ''Chlamydomonas'' is a genus of green algae consisting of about 150 speciesSmith, G.M. 1955 ''Cryptogamic Botany Volume 1. Algae and Fungi'' McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc of unicellular flagellates, found in stagnant water and on damp soil, ...

, a type of

green algae The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...

. The largest marine algae are

kelp Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms. Kelp grows in "underwat ...

species, which include bull kelp (''

Durvillaea antarctica ''Durvillaea antarctica'', also known as ' and ', is a large, robust species of southern bull kelp found on the coasts of Chile, southern New Zealand, and Macquarie Island.Smith, J.M.B. and Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1998). Kelp-plucking: coastal eros ...

''), which can reach over long and is thought to be the strongest kelp in the world. As many as 47 individual plants can live on , and they can grow at a day. Kelp that is broken off its anchor provides a valuable food source for many animals, as well as providing a method of

oceanic dispersal Oceanic dispersal is a type of biological dispersal that occurs when terrestrial organisms transfer from one land mass to another by way of a sea crossing. Island hopping is the crossing of an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between island ...

for animals such as invertebrates to travel across the Southern Ocean by riding floating kelp.

Conservation

Human activity poses significant risk for Antarctic wildlife, causing problems such as pollution, habitat destruction, and wildlife disturbance. These problems are especially acute around research stations.

Climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and its associated effects pose significant risk to the future of Antarctica's natural environment. Due to the historical isolation of Antarctic wildlife, they are easily outcompeted and threatened by

, also brought by human activity. Many introduced species have already established themselves, with rats a particular threat, especially to nesting seabirds whose eggs they eat.

Illegal fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes pl ...

remains an issue, as overfishing poses a great threat to krill and toothfish populations. Toothfish, slow-growing, long-lived fish that have previously suffered from overfishing, are particularly at risk. Illegal fishing also brings further risks through the use of techniques banned in regulated fishing, such as

gillnetting Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...

and

longline fishing Longline fishing, or longlining, is a commercial fishing angling technique that uses a long ''main line'' with baited hooks attached at intervals via short branch lines called ''snoods'' or ''gangions''.bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

of animals such as albatrosses. Subantarctic islands fall under the jurisdiction of national governments, with environmental regulation following the laws of those countries. Some islands are in addition protected through obtaining the status of a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The

regulates all activity in latitudes south of 60°S, and designates Antarctica as a natural reserve for science. Under this system all activity must be assessed for its environmental impact. Part of this system, the

Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, also known as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and CCAMLR, is part of the Antarctic Treaty System. The convention was opened for s ...

, regulates fishing and protects marine areas.