On a recent expedition to Surtsey, scientists discovered five new plants on an island known to many as a ‘living laboratory.’ The group’s annual expedition took them to the small island just off the south coast of Iceland which was created when a volcano exploded in 1963 and is a favourite place for curious scientists.
Dr. Sturla Fridriksson is one such scientist. He has been visiting the island every year for the last 43 years. “I feel like a boy looking for adventures, looking for a treasure,” he said.
In an effort to determine how life would evolve on earth without human interference, access to the island is restricted to a small number of qualified scientists.
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IMAGE: Isotopic niches of the studied species of the genus Rossia: comparison among species and ontogenetic comparison within species. view more
Credit: Olga Zimina
Co-author from Kazan Federal University, Professor Rushan Sabirov explains, In ecosystems, two or more closely related species of organisms with similar ecology and morphological appearance often inhabit the same territory. These species are called sympatric. According to classical ecological theory, one of the species will lose out in competition and eventually die out. In reality, closely related sympatric species coexist successfully for a long time. It is very important to understand how the division of resources and favorable biotope sites between sympatric species in the Arctic occurs, because Arctic ecosystems are extremely susceptible to external influences.