Mar 10, 2014 06:38 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Volcanoes may have helped many species of plants and animals survive past ice ages, according to a recent study.

An international team of researchers led by Dr. Ceridwen Fraser from the Australian National University and Dr. Aleks Terauds from the Australian Antarctic Division found evidence that the steam and heat from volcanoes and heated rocks allowed many species of plants and animals to survive past ice ages, helping scientists understand how species respond to climate change, according to a press release.

"Volcanic steam can melt large ice caves under the glaciers, and it can be tens of degrees warmer in there than outside. Caves and warm steam fields would have been great places for species to hang out during ice ages," Fraser said in a statement. "We can learn a lot from looking at the impacts of past climate change as we try to deal with the accelerated change that humans are now causing."

For the study, researchers analyzed tens of thousands of records of Antarctic species, collected over decades by hundreds of researchers, and found there are more species close to volcanoes, and fewer further away. The looked for diversity patterns of mosses, lichens and bugs which are still common in the continent today.

Professor Peter Convey from the British Antarctic Survey stated that around 60 percent of Antarctic invertebrate species are found nowhere else in the world.

"They have clearly not arrived on the continent recently, but must have been there for millions of years. How they survived past ice ages -- the most recent of which ended less than 20,000 years ago -- has long puzzled scientists," Convey said.

Antarctica has at least 16 volcanoes which have been active since the last ice age 20,000 years ago.

While the study was based on Antarctica, the findings help scientists understand how species survived past ice ages in other icy regions, including in periods when it is thought there was little or no ice-free land on the planet.

Professor Steven Chown, from Monash University, said in a statement that the research findings could help guide conservation efforts in Antarctica.

"Knowing where the 'hotspots' of diversity are will help us to protect them as human-induced environmental changes continue to affect Antarctica," Chown said.

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