The highest snow-filled Rainier in Washington, US, at first thought to be lifeless, until billions of ice worms emerged every summer.
As the sun shines down the ice, billions of ice worms, small as black threads inside the ice and snow, begin to weave onto the surface. Up to now, scientists have not been able to explain this phenomenon.
The ice cub has the scientific name Mesenchytraeus solifugus. This is the only worm known to have lived all their lives in ice. Faced with the reality of frostbanks in the area narrowing due to global warming, these worms are facing the risk of extinction.
This small worm was first described in 1898, but because there were few people paying attention to it, there was not much information about them. In fact, this seems to be the species with the largest population living in ice.
Scientists still don't know why they emerge in the summer, or why they live most of their lives hidden in ice. And how they function under the ice layer for a long time is a mystery.
However, the little information about ice worms is surprising.
Biologist Scott Hotaling at Washington State University, USA, is one of the scientists who are actively researching ice worms.
Hotaling explained that ice worms bury themselves in the cold ice and snow but are basically within their endurance threshold. Like snow tents, the outside temperature can reach minus 40 degrees Celsius but the inside is only about 0 degrees. Paradoxically, when the ice surface is cloudy in the summer, exposure to cold air is the reason why they are at risk of freezing the most.
Hotaling said that the behavior of these worms in the summer is similar to their distant cousin, the earthworm. The worms wind through the ice, eating bacteria and algae in the front and discharging waste behind. What they do during the new winter is the "last mystery," Hotaling said. Although this scientist really wants to know the answer, the fact that ice worms are buried under a layer of snow tens of meters thick for most of their time makes them very difficult to grasp.
distributed throughout Alaska and the Northwest Pacific, ice worms only grow in very specific ice environments, such as the edge between high-altitude forests and ice peaks.
Our little genetic evidence shows that ice worms may have covered the entire last ice age, says biologist Hotaling. When the ice receded at the end of the Pleistocen period about 20,000 years ago, this worm was left alone on isolated mountain peaks and has thrived since then.
Hotaling notes that ice worms can be an important food source for birds that fight the cold.
Although there is not much information about ice worms, they are clearly an important part of a harsh ecosystem. As rivers gradually melt, their habitat disappears, causing ice worms to risk disappearing. Biologist Hotaling deeply recognized that his research did not have much time left.
This is one of the fastest-changing habitats on Earth, but we know too little about them, the biologist said.
