When most people picture the Central Arctic Ocean, they imagine a frozen wilderness. A hostile, empty place of ice, darkness and brightness, and extremes. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Beneath its shifting sea ice lies one of the least explored ecosystems on Earth, a marine environment so unusual that it must inevitably harbour biological adaptations unlike any found elsewhere on our planet.

The uncomfortable truth is that we know remarkably little about what lives there. And that ignorance should concern us.

The Central Arctic Ocean’s Canada Basin emerged 90-130 million years ago, its Eurasian Basin 56 million years ago, and its position over the North Pole was arrived at 50 million years ago. Sea ice likely appeared 47 million years ago, more persistent seasonal sea ice cover 13-14 million years ago … and the year-round sea ice state, with which we’ve been familiar, 2-3 million years ago. Biological evolution has had millions of years to work its magic. 

In parallel, the ice cover, prolonged winter darkness, extensive cold waters, low nutrient availability, and extraordinary seasonality have together created a habitat unlike any other in the ocean. Species that survive here have had to solve a combination of biological challenges that are not encountered anywhere else.