Warming temperatures due to climate change have had more impacts on Antarctica than just melting glaciers.
Scientists analyzing satellite data have discovered significant greening on the Antarctic Peninsula, a staggering growth of vegetation that could jeopardize the continent’s biodiversity.
DON’T MISS: Climate change impacts on Antarctica captured as ‘moments etched in time’
Antarctica is on the frontlines of the world’s rapidly changing climate. Increasing temperatures have cause a loss of mass among nearly all of the continent’s glaciers, contributing to sea level rise and exposing bare rock to the open air.
Researchers with the University of Exeter studied nearly 40 years of satellite imagery covering the Antarctic Peninsula, the portion of the continent jutting toward South America, to analyze the region’s change in vegetation over the decades.
A map of the change in vegetated area on the Antarctic Peninsula between 1986. Map courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.
What the scientists found was stunning.
Coverage of likely vegetation on the Antarctic Peninsula increased almost 14-fold between 1986 and 2021, growing from 0.863 square kilometres to 11.947 square kilometres. The rate of change increased significantly in recent years compared to early on in the study’s time period.
While the researchers found that Antarctica’s lone two species of vascular plants, Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort, have extended their reach amid warming temperatures, they found that almost all of the greenery growth observed on the Antarctic Peninsula is moss.
MUST SEE: Ancient ‘lost world’ discovered deep under Antarctic ice
“Moss communities have a central role in the conversion of bare rock surfaces to vegetated ground,” they said in the study, noting that moss leads to the formation of soils that are capable of supporting more complex vegetation.
The growth of new life and creation of new soils could have far-reaching consequences on the region’s ecosystem, potentially eroding the region’s biodiversity and threatening plant species that are endemic to Antarctica.
“With a flow of new seed sources to the continent associated with tourism and scientific research footfall,” the study noted, “biosecurity will become increasingly critical as temperature limitations on cold, high-latitude ecosystems decrease, removing constraints on colonization by non-native species.”
Antarctica isn’t the only place that’s experienced rapid greening in recent years. A paper published in February 2024 found that vegetation in Greenland has more than doubled since the 1980s, with the island’s wetlands quadrupling over the same time period.