Vegetation on the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold in the past four decades, accelerating particularly in recent years due to warming and extreme heat events, according to research published today.
The research, carried out by the Universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire and the British Antarctic Survey in the UK, used satellite data to assess the extent to which Antarctica is greening due to melting ice caused by global warming.
The data shows that the area of vegetation cover across the Peninsula has increased from less than one square kilometre in 1986 to almost 12 square kilometres in 2021.
They also show that the trend in vegetation cover has accelerated by more than 30% in recent years, from 2016 to 2021, compared to the entire period. During this period, green areas have expanded by more than 400,000 square metres per year.
In a previous study examining core samples taken from moss-dominated ecosystems on the Antarctic Peninsula, evidence was found that plant growth rates had increased dramatically in recent decades.
The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, confirms that a widespread trend towards a greener peninsula is underway and accelerating.
Thomas Roland of the University of Exeter said in a statement from the institution about the research that the plants found on the Antarctic Peninsula, particularly mosses, grow in what must be the harshest conditions on Earth, in a landscape dominated almost entirely by snow, ice and rock.
In this landscape, he warned, there is a small fraction of plant life that has “grown dramatically”, showing that even this isolated area “is being affected by climate change” caused by man.
Olly Bartlett of the University of Hertfordshire explained in the same paper that Antarctica's soil is largely poor or non-existent, and that the increase in plant life will add organic matter and facilitate soil formation.
The possible arrival of new plants increases the risk of invasive species, say the researchers, who stress the need for more research.
"The sensitivity of Antarctic Peninsula vegetation to climate change is now clear, and with future anthropogenic warming we could see fundamental changes to the biology and landscape of this iconic and vulnerable region," Thomas Roland warned in the paper.
