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Biology Depository
The biology depositories of the Platform include the depository of the Institute of Oceanology Chinese Academy of Sciences and the depository of PRIC. These two depositories preserve more than 5000 pieces of marine and terrestrial biological samples obtained during previous CHINARE since 1984.
The biology depository of the Institute of Oceanology Chinese Academy of Sciences preserves 3000 and more pieces of biological samples from the adjacent Antarctic, and other regions of the Circum-Southern Ocean, including samples of algae, protist, poriferan, cnidaria, mollusk, crustacean, bryozoa, echinozoa, fish and seabirds and the like marine biological phyla. This depository locates in the Marine Biological Sample Museum of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the biggest marine biological sample museum in Aisa, with a polar marine ecology exhibition showing particularly penguins, seals and the like large polar marine biological samples.
The biology depository of PRIC preserves 2000 and more pieces of biological samples from the adjacent Antarctic , and the Arctic Yellow River Station, including samples of marine microalgae, large-sized seaweeds , mollusk, crustacean, fish and seabirds and the like marine biological phyla , lichen, moss, carpophyte and the like land plants, as well as 100 pieces of the purified polar microalgae.
Up to now more than 2,800 pieces of the polar marine plant and animal samples information have been published via BIRDS website by the two depositories for scientists and researchers. In the future the rest of the samples information as well as those newly collected will be available step by step. These precious poplar samples reveal the rarely known rich storage of the marine biological resources in the polar regions and offer the precious practicalities for the study of the marine and terrestrial ecology, taxonomy, and biological,etc.
Antarctic Krill:Latin name Euphausia superba, an overwhelming marine crustacean in the Southern Ocean, is the main food resources for the Antarctic seabirds, seals, blue whales and the like mammals. Weak in active movements, they normally swarm in life: sometimes the shoal can be up to half a kilometer long, several hundred meters wide, and 10 - 16 kg m-3 in density. It is preliminarily estimated that there are totally about 0.6 to 1 billion tons of krill in the Southern Ocean, the biggest animal protein storage by one species in the Earth. CHINARE has conducted many surveys on the krill biomass and Antarctic ecology. The photos are the samples obtained by zooplankton nets.
Adeliae Penguin：Latin name Pygoscelis adeliae. It is the most widely distributed penguin with the largest population, around 5 million in Antarctica. A colony normally includes several thousands of penguins. It is about 50 centimeters high, 4 kilograms in weight, with a maximum life span of around 20 years. Its eye rims are white, its head appears bluish green, its beak is black with slim feathers in the edges, its legs are short, and its feet are black. It spends the winter in the sub-Antarctic, and back the Antarctic in the spring for breeding. Its foods are mainly euphausiid together with shoal beasties, fingerling, and crustaceans. Its natural enemies are mainly leopard seals, Antarctic skua, salanganes, and other seabirds normally attack poults and eggs.
Marine Microalgae: Marine microalgae can synthesize inorganic carbon into organic carbon by photosynthesis, and this is the original source of materials and energy in the marine ecosystem. Widely distributed in the sea water, sea ice, and sea sediment, it plays an important role in the marine ecosystem. The microalgae samples are the basis of the marine microalgae taxonomy and ecology studies. The photo showed are cells of Biddulphia striata, a common species in the Southern Ocean in summer. Cells are solitary or in short chains with two or four curved labiate proceeses, and can form heavily silicified resting spores in harsh environment.
Arctic Purified Microalgae: The purified samples of the Arctic microalgae were collected from the fields and purified via separation in the lab. It is of great value in studies because of it’s low temperature resistance, salt tolerance, and other special physiological characteristics and therefore is an ideal object in basic scientific researches, such as physiology and ecology, and applied researches, such as special bioactive material research. The photo purified algae strains separated from the Arctic glacier melted water.
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