TAKEN FROM: RADIO POLAR.COM
Although it is difficult to imagine, in the Antarctica is not all rock and glaciers. There is also a flora that has evolved and adapted to this extreme environment. Proof of this is the existence of terrestrial vegetation, especially of non-vascular plants (plants with no flowers) as lichens and mosses, which are present in areas not covered by ice for just 0.3% of the continent. These species are vital to the development of Antarctic life, especially the moss, widespread but little known about its distribution processes, and the role it plays in this pristine ecosystem.
Thus, questions arise spontaneously: Where do these mosses, how many years have lived in Antarctica, how have managed to stay for more than three thousand years in the continent? They are part of the expected answer questions that the project "Genetic variability Sanionia uncinata moss as a model for conservation", led by researcher and professor at the University of Magallanes (UMAG), the Agricultural Engineering and a PhD in Genetics, Ingrid Hebel.
The study is developed since 2009, aims to contribute to the knowledge of the variability, colonization and adaptation of populations of such mosses. Under the XLVII Antarctic Scientific Expedition, organized by the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), the research team of Dr. Hebel managed to gather important background on the colonization of moss Sanionia uncinata, in the field of Hannah Point on Livingston Island, information which until now was only brief in the literature.
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