In certain geological eras called Ice Ages, when the macro-atmospheric conditions allow it, the polar areas of our planet are covered with a thick crust of solid water, the polar ice caps.

Given the famous exploration attempts , the economic and scientific importance of these places and our natural curiosity, we all know that even such cold and inhospitable environments offer life possibilities for many specialized organisms, both on the surface and in the sea, where environmental conditions tend to remain more stable . The very low temperatures and the frozen soil do not allow the survival of any type of terrestrial vegetation: the polar trophic chains are based almost exclusively on tiny primary marine producers, phytoplankton.

The Arctic polar cap is an element fundamental of our planet since about two and a half million years. Its presence has serious repercussions on the world climate and therefore for every organisms life: it conditions sea and air currents, imprisons greenhouse gases, influences the level of the oceans and reflects solar irradiation.

But the current Ice Age is going to meet an abrupt end: climatological data and satellite images of the last decades clearly show an increase in average temperatures and a progressive decrease in the ice sheet. If this trend were not to be reversed, by the end of the century we could say goodbye to this very special ecosystem.