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Antarctica, the world’s iciest continent, is ‘greening’ at a dramatic rate

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Antarctica, the world’s iciest continent, is ‘greening’ at a dramatic rate

Even this vast and isolated ‘wilderness’ is being affected by climate change.

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A portion of the world’s iciest, coldest continent is “greening” at a dramatic rate because of global warming, scientists announced in a recent study. In fact, the research showed that vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the last four decades.

“The landscape is still almost entirely dominated by snow, ice and rock, with only a tiny fraction colonized by plant life,” said study co-author Thomas Roland, from the University of Exeter in the U.K., in a statement.

“But that tiny fraction has grown dramatically – showing that even this vast and isolated ‘wilderness’ is being affected by anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change,” he said.

Greening on the Antarctic Peninsula increased from less than 1.1 square miles in 1986 to nearly 14.3 square miles in 2021.

Extreme heat events frequent

The warmer Antarctica gets, the greener it gets: “Antarctica has experienced significant increases in temperature over the past 60 years,” the study said. “With rates of warming highest in the West Antarctic and Antarctic Peninsula regions and occurring much faster than global average warming.”

Specifically, temperatures on the peninsula have risen by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, a much bigger increase than seen elsewhere in the world, said the study, which was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

And the Antarctic Peninsula is warming at a rate that exceeds the global average, with extreme heat events becoming increasingly frequent in the region, according to the study.

More: What does climate change mean to you? Here’s what different generations say.

Greening to increase

The research suggests the of greening in Antarctica will continue to increase

Study co-author Olly Bartlett, from the University of Hertfordshire, said: “Soil in Antarctica is mostly poor or non-existent, but this increase in plant life will add organic matter, and facilitate soil formation – potentially paving the way for other plants to grow. This raises the risk of non-native and invasive species arriving, possibly carried by tourists, scientists or other visitors to the continent.”

Satellite imagery used

The new research used satellite images to determine that a greening trend across the Antarctic Peninsula is occuring and increasing.

The research is “really important,” Jasmine Lee, a conservation scientist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, told the journal Nature. Although other studies have found evidence that vegetation on the peninsula is changing in response to climate change, “this is the first study that’s taken a huge-scale approach to look at the entire region”, she told Nature.

The “phenomenal” rate of expansion of greenery, Roland told Nature, highlights “the unprecedented changes that humans are imposing on Earth’s climate.”

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