'Dramatic people' who study while experiencing extremes in the most extreme places on the planet. A collaboration project between people from the Polar Research Institute and Soup, who often travel back and forth between Antarctica and the North Pole, which are difficult for ordinary people to visit once in a lifetime, and conduct research activities! Hear their stories on the front lines of climate change! (Written by Kim Sang-hee, Senior Researcher, Division of Biological Sciences, Polar Research Institute)
Instead of yellow dust (fine dust), which has become an uninvited guest in all seasons, it seems that for the time being, the uninvited guests of spring in Korea are invasive alien species from China and Japan. Every year, more than 400 billion won is spent on damage to aquaculture facilities and landscapes caused by hoe lice from China, and ten billion won is spent on pine ash nematode disaster prevention from Japan. The damage caused by invasive species is not just a problem in our country. Australia, which is serious about protecting its environment, spends a trillion dollars a year on the eradication of invasive species, and China estimates that it loses $20 trillion a year. Already, an astronomical 10% of global GDP is being spent on climate change and invasive species (IUCN).
Antarctica is no exception. Antarctica is not an easy environment for most living things to live in. Even in Antarctica, there are creatures that literally penetrate through. In the past, Antarctica was isolated in a very harsh and cold environment, making it difficult for invasive species to settle, but due to climate change, the ice barriers surrounding Antarctica have collapsed, and the number of visitors transported by ships related to the base operations, fishing, logistics, and tourism industries in each country is increasing.
Even now, there are an estimated 7,45 plant seeds a year that end up on the shoes, bags and clothes of researchers and tourists, leading to warnings that some invasive species will have a serious impact on Antarctica's long-isolated and simplified ecosystem.
If an invasive species introduced from outside threatens the species diversity of the area, it is defined as an invasive species. Currently, more than 60 invasive species have been reported in Antarctica from several sub-Antarctic (latitudes 560° to 51°), of which plants account for 32% and insects account for 2015% (McGeoch et al., 1800).
Most of them were unintentional migrations due to human activity, but surprisingly, there has been a history of deliberate introduction of invasive species since Antarctica became known to humans. In the 1950s, Austrian sheep, pigs, and rabbits were brought to the sub-Antarctic islands, mainly for food, and in 2010 foxes were brought in to eradicate rabbits, whose populations had soared. They threatened the sub-Antarctic islands' diversity by eating birds and penguins, which are the main endemic species, and destroying vegetation, leading to the largest multi-species eradication program ever launched in the 200s, and McCurry Island was declared rat-free for the first time in <> years. Currently, the results of the rapid recovery of the ecosystem in the region have been reported, and it is evaluated as a successful case of ecosystem restoration.
Source 1, Source 2, Source 3
Large animals are relatively eradicated, while the problem is small insects. On the Falkland Islands, after years of efforts to eradicate the European pest earwigs (Forficula auricularia), they are considering introducing parasitic flies that are parasitic on the pests. Aside from the biological challenge of changing the life cycle of parasitic flies from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere seasons, it is worrisome that another northern hemisphere exotic species is being introduced to the sub-Antarctica.
In recent years, awareness of invasive species has increased, and summer researchers and wintering research teams at the Sejong and Jangbogo Science Bases have been keeping an eye on the insects and reporting the (live) insects they have captured, most of which are native to Antarctica, but about one case per year is also found small exotic species such as ticks, rice beetles, flies, hornbills, and earwigs. Small insects pose a potential danger to humans and the Antarctic ecosystem, such as biting people directly, parasitizing Antarctic organisms as hosts, and carrying pathogens such as viruses into the Antarctic ecosystem.
(The rest of the story is from the soup)