A New Age of Exploration in Antarctic Biodiversity

Antarctica is increasingly threatened by global climate change. Documenting its biodiversity and understanding the evolution of its species are critical for predicting ecosystem responses to future and ongoing environmental disturbances.

The discovery and description of species-level biodiversity is a central goal of biological research and carries important implications for conservation and the understanding of evolution through deep time.

Yale Ph.D. candidate Elyse Parker explores how species discovery and description in Antarctic fishes have been revolutionized by the integration of next-generation DNA sequencing with traditional morphological data. She also discusses how changes in our hypotheses of Antarctic biodiversity impact our understanding of how life evolved there across a backdrop of ancient climate change. Investigating these past events may help us better forecast future impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

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