The white continent is turning green. Of course, the landscape is still almost entirely composed of snow, ice and rocks. But plants are taking up more and more space on the Antarctic Peninsula, the northern tip of the South Pole, which extends beyond the Arctic Circle. Areas of vegetation, mainly moss, increased from less than 0.9 square kilometers (km²) to almost 12 km² between 1986 and 2021, a nearly fourteen-fold increase. And greening has accelerated since 2016, according to a study published in the journal Nature GeoscienceFriday, October 4, raising concerns about disruptions to this vast continent.
“Only a small fraction of Antarctica is colonized by plants. But this area has increased dramatically, showing that even this vast, remote wilderness is affected by human-caused climate change.” says Thomas Roland, first author of the study and professor of physical geography at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom).
In 2017, scientists had already shown that moss was growing in height under the effect of warming in three places on the peninsula, but without evaluating the surface covered. This time they traveled 500,000 km.2 of the peninsula using thirty-five years of satellite studies. “We were surprised by the magnitude of the change and its dramatic pace”adds Thomas Roland. Greening has also occurred in the Arctic for several decades, but no scientist has yet characterized it at the South Pole.
Fast heating
How to explain this colonization? He is “very likely” that these changes are due to increased temperatures and reduced sea ice, “which causes more humid conditions favorable to the growth of plants and a lengthening of their growing season”says Oliver Bartlett, co-author of the study and professor of remote sensing and geography at the University of Hertfordshire (United Kingdom).
The Antarctic Peninsula is warming very quickly, much faster than the rest of the world. More generally, the entire South Pole has experienced exceptional heat waves in recent years. In the east of the continent, temperatures exceeded normal by 28°C on some days in July, and even by 40°C in 2022. This overheating could be related to climate change, but scientists are not unanimous on the matter, natural phenomena . that can come into play.
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