Researchers, including those at the University of Exeter, UK, used satellite data to estimate the “greening” rate of the Antarctic Peninsula in response to climate change. Surprisingly, researchers have noticed the trend accelerating by more than 30 percent in recent years compared to the past three decades, from less than a square kilometer to almost 12 square kilometers between 1986 and 2021.
“This recent acceleration in the rate of change in vegetation cover (2016-2021) coincides with a marked decrease in sea-ice extent in Antarctica over the same period,” the authors wrote in the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Evan Kirstel, a famous Tech Influencer wrote on X, “The continent of Antarctica is turning green so ‘dramatically’ that its entire future is in question, it’s been warned. The Antarctic peninsula is warming faster than the global average, with extreme heat events happening more often, meaning the amount of vegetation there has ballooned”.
Researchers have found that vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than ten-folds coinciding with a marked decrease in sea-ice extent in Antarctica over the same period.
As fossil fuel pollution continues to heat up the world, Antarctica will keep on warming and this greening is only likely to accelerate, the scientists predict.
The more the peninsula greens, the more soil will form and the more likely the region will become more favorable for invasive species, potentially threatening native wildlife.
“Seeds, spores and plant fragments can readily find their way to the Antarctic Peninsula on the boots or equipment of tourists and researchers, or via more ‘traditional’ routes associated with migrating birds and the wind – and so the risk here is clear,” said Thomas Roland, a study author and environmental scientist at the University of Exeter.
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