Following the collapse and disintegration of the Larson A and B ice shelves in Antarctica, scientists have launched a 10-week expedition to explore the area and see what species dwell in the previously unexplored area.

Life has again proven its resiliency as over a thousand species were catalogued in the frigid waters off the part where the collapse happened. Interesting new creatures were found, such as a colorful octopus that looks like it was painted in the psychedelic era, a gelatinous sea squirt, sea cucumbers and some crustaceans.

Scientist Gauthier Chapelle, a member of the expedition described what they found as "virgin geography" and said "if we don't find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won't have any basis to know in 20 years' time what has changed and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem."

This newly-discovered marine ecosystem became available for exploration when the ice shelves covering it were torn off the coast of Antarctica. Ice shelves are formed when glaciers inland creep out to sea over a long time and create a thick blanket of ice floating but still attached to the glacier. However, scientists say that global warming is rapidly changing the landscape in the frosty south.

In the past 30 years, about 13,500 square kilometers have broken away, drifted out to sea and dissipated in warmer waters. That's roughly half the size of New Jersey. As the terrain changes, the environment at the sea floor gradually adjusts. Some species survive the change while some die out. In some cases, new species start moving into the ecological neighborhood.

Sea lilies, sea urchins and sea cucumbers were found in this environment, but scientists noted that these species are not indigenous to the terrain. These creatures are usually found in much deeper waters but the disintegration of the ice shelves seem to have made the environment more viable for their existence.
 
Scientists pointed out that of all the species found in the expedition, 95 percent were native to the area while five percent were outsiders who moved in. In ecological terms, there has been a substantial change in the locale's biodiversity.

"Life at the sea floor obviously reacts very slowly to this very climactic change in the environmental conditions," said JulianGutt, head scientist of the International Polar Year expedition. "[It] needs hundreds to thousands of years until a new community has fully developed, if this will happen at all."

Gutt also pointed to disturbances caused by icebergs as a life-spawning event in the continent. Icebergs crashing against the shelves often leave a scarred terrain where signs of life seem to return.