We often hear about glacier melting and predictions of what climate change could do. But very little is mentioned about the effects on ecosystems or the animals that call them home. To redress some of this imbalance, an international team of researchers set out to map this hidden biodiversity. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rich glacial ecosystems
Glaciers are more than just massive chunks of moving ice. They are also teeming with a wide variety of terrestrial and freshwater animals. In their study, the team combed through prior research and identified at least 152 species known to live on glaciers. These include rotifers (microscopic animals), springtails (small hexapods closely related to insects) and tardigrades (microscopic, eight-legged invertebrates known as water bears).

To find out exactly what lives in these frozen worlds, the study authors reviewed 2,695 published papers, narrowing them down to 124 studies about terrestrial and freshwater glacier habitats.

They created a global map containing 482 verified records of glacier-dwelling animals, including the name of the glacier where each lived and its habitat type. The organisms were divided into two groups: glacier animals (use glaciers but can live elsewhere) and glacier specialists (found only on glaciers). The researchers then overlaid these maps with predictions of glacier melt from climate change models to estimate how much habitat would disappear by 2100.