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Antarctica is changing before our eyes: the ice is melting and vegetation is taking over!

Written by Noel Budeguer
Published 13/10/2024 às 10:07
Antarctica is changing before our eyes: the ice is melting and vegetation is taking over!

Climate shock in Antarctica! Vegetation increases 10 times in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. What does this mean for the future of the planet? Find out now!

Antarctica is becoming increasingly vegetated, which is a bad thing. Antarctica has become one of the thermometers that scientists use to measure the effects of climate change. For example, a few weeks ago we realized that Antarctica is rising about five centimeters per year. phenomenon is fascinating, but it also raises questions about how this will affect sea level rise.

Now the researchers compared images satellite data from the last 30-40 years and the conclusion is that plant life is gaining ground on the ice. And at a frightening rate.

Green Antarctica. Let's look at the data: plant life in this extremely hostile environment has increased more than tenfold in the last 40 years. The research was carried out by scientists from the British universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire who, as they point out in the Nature publication, were carried out thanks to the observation of satellite images taken by NASA's Landsat program and the use of multispectral images to monitor vegetation.

Thus, they realized that in 1986 there was less than one square kilometer of the Antarctic Peninsula that was green, something that increased to 11,9 km² in 2021. The trend from 1986 to 2016 was an increase of 0,31 km² per year, but this spiked between 2016 and 2021, reaching an annual growth in the vegetation area of ​​0,42 km². Currently, the density of vegetation continues to increase and this is something that can be clearly seen in the images:

Accelerated Warming of Antarctica: A New Ecosystem in the Making

It's getting hot. And heat is a big part of it. Over the past 60 years, Antarctica has warmed significantly and at a faster rate than the rest of the world. Recent summers are a case in point, with temperatures up to 20 degrees above normal in 2022 and about 10 degrees above normal in mid-July 2024. And models predict that the region will continue to warm through the year 2100 at a rate of 0,34 degrees, on average, per decade.

Traveling seeds. The more the ice melts, in addition to contributing to the rise in sea levels, the more space there will be for vegetation and more rainfall in the region, which will help this vegetation develop. But… how are the seeds reaching Antarctica? Speaking to CNN, Thomas Roland —one of the authors of the study— states that “seeds, spores and plant fragments can easily reach the Antarctic Peninsula on the boots or equipment of tourists and researchers, but also through more 'traditional' routes, such as migratory birds or the wind.”

Colonizing vegetation. However, these almost 12 km² of green area are only a small fraction of the 522.000 km², but the problem is not the size of the green Antarctica, but rather the speed at which vegetation is expanding and also the fact that it has been in recent years that an increase in the rate of plant colonization has been observed due to higher temperatures.

Invasive vegetation: A threat to the native ecosystem

It’s also a problem for native wildlife. This colonization of plants that are foreign to the ecosystem will quickly crowd out the native wildlife. Furthermore, while the results presented by the team are already worrying, Professor Matthew Davey of the Scottish Association for Marine Science says there may be more vegetation than the researchers found. This is because the study focused on moss fields, but there are also lichens, grasslands and green and red algae that contribute to the increase in the area of ​​vegetation in Antarctica.

Goodbye to the big mirror. Other researchers who were not involved in the study, such as Andrew Shepherd — head of the Department of Geography at Northumbria University — say the results are “very interesting” and agree that these are the ideal conditions for life to have a basis for development now. And everything could be accelerated not only by the increase in temperatures that are already occurring, but also by secondary effects.

Because most of the surface is covered in ice, the Antarctic Peninsula acts like a giant mirror that reflects solar radiation back into space. However, as the ice disappears and rock and vegetation appear, less radiation will be reflected and more heat will be absorbed. Olly Bartlett, another author of the study, says the impact of this will likely be local, but will help accelerate the growth of plant life.

It wasn't always white. It is clear that researchers will have their work cut out for them as they investigate how plants are able to colonize the arid lands of the Antarctic Peninsula. However, it appears that a few million years ago, vegetation dominated the region. Just as some of the world's largest deserts were once forests or jungles, Antarctica was once a forest.

This happened 40 million years ago, when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere triggered a powerful greenhouse effect that created a living ecosystem with prehistoric vegetation and animals. Going back to that scenario… wouldn’t be good for the rest of us.

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Noel Budeguer

Of Argentine nationality, I am a news writer and specialist in the field. I cover topics such as science, oil, gas, technology, the automotive industry, renewable energy and all trends in the job market.

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