2024-10-07 15:42:32
Vegetation cover on the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the past four decades, with warming faster than the global average and extreme heat waves.
A new study, led by the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire and the British Antarctic Survey, used satellite data to assess the extent to which the Antarctic peninsula has “greened” in response to the emergency climate change.
The area covered by vegetation across the peninsula has increased from less than one square kilometer in 1986 to nearly 12 square kilometers in 2021.
The area covered by vegetation across the peninsula was found to have increased from less than one square kilometer in 1986 to nearly 12 square kilometers in 2021.
More than 400,000 m² between 1986 and 2021
Published in the magazine Nature geoscience (1), the study also found that this tendency to Greening has accelerated by more than 30% in recent years (2016-2021) compared to the entire study period (1986-2021), expanding over this period by over 400,000 m² per year.
In an earlier study, which examined samples taken from moss-dominated ecosystems on the Antarctic Peninsula, the team found evidence that plant growth rates had increased dramatically in recent decades.
This new study uses satellite imagery to confirm that a generalized green trend throughout the Antarctic peninsulait is ongoing and accelerating.
“The plants we find on the Antarctic Peninsula, mainly mosses, grow in perhaps the harshest conditions on Earth,” Dr. Thomas Roland of the University of Exeter said in a statement.
Anthropogenic climate change
“The landscape remains almost entirely dominated by snow, ice and rock, with only a small fraction colonized by plant life. But that small fraction has grown dramatically, demonstrating that even this vast and isolated ‘wilderness’ is affected by anthropogenic climate change.
The researchers highlight the urgent need for further research to establish the specific climate and environmental mechanisms driving the greening trend.
“THE The sensitivity of the vegetation of the Antarctic Peninsula to climate change is now evident and, in the future, with anthropogenic warming, we may see fundamental changes in the biology and landscape of this iconic and vulnerable region,” Dr Roland said.
Researchers are now studying how recently thawed (ice-free) landscapes are colonized by plants and how the process might continue into the future.
- (1) Prolonged greening of the Antarctic Peninsula observed by satellites. Nature geoscience.
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