NASA scientists working in the Arctic Ocean have discovered blooms of microscopic plantlike organisms living beneath the ice.

In the ICESCAPE (Impacts of Climate on EcoSystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment) project, researchers explored and sampled the area below the ice on the Chukchi Sea continental shelf north of Siberia. In their press release, the scientists called the discovery, “as unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert.”

The finding revealed a new consequence of the Arctic’s warming climate and provided an important clue to understanding the impacts of a changing climate and environment on the Arctic Ocean and its ecology, NASA said in a statement. 

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