Plant cover on the Antarctic Peninsula has surged over tenfold in recent decades as the climate crisis accelerates the warming of the continent.

Satellite data analysis reveals that while less than one square kilometre of vegetation existed in 1986, by 2021 this had expanded to nearly 12 square kilometres.

The increase in plant growth, primarily mosses, has accelerated since 2016, reflecting the broader impact of global warming on Antarctica, which is heating up faster than the global average.

This greening of a continent dominated by ice and rock signals the far-reaching effects of climate change. Scientists warn that this shift may enable invasive species to establish themselves in the pristine Antarctic ecosystem.

Similar greening has been observed in the Arctic, where, for the first time on record, rain instead of snow fell on Greenland’s ice cap in 2021.

“The Antarctic landscape is still almost entirely dominated by snow, ice and rock, with only a tiny fraction colonised by plant life,” said Dr Thomas Roland, at the University of Exeter, UK, and who co-led the study. “But that tiny fraction has grown dramatically – showing that even this vast and isolated wilderness is being affected by human-caused climate change.” The peninsula is about 500,000km2 in total.

Dr. Roland, a lead researcher, cautioned that continued warming, driven by carbon emissions, could fundamentally alter the region’s biology and landscape.

Prof Andrew Shepherd, at Northumbria University, UK, and not part of the study team, said: “This is a very interesting study and tallies with what I found when I visited Larsen Inlet [on the peninsula] a couple of years ago. We landed on a beach that was buried beneath the Larsen Ice Shelf until the shelf collapsed in 1986-88. We found it to now have a river with green algae growing in it!”

“This place had been hidden from the atmosphere for thousands of years and was colonised by plants within a couple of decades of it becoming ice free – it’s astonishing really,” he said. “It’s a barometer of climate change but also a tipping point for the region as life now has a foothold there.”

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, analysed Landsat satellite images and linked the rapid spread of mosses since 2016 to the dramatic decline in sea ice.

Warmer open seas may create wetter conditions that favour plant growth. Mosses, which can colonise bare rock, help form soils that may support other plants as the climate becomes milder.

Dr Olly Bartlett, at the University of Hertfordshire and also co-leader of the new study, said: “Soil in Antarctica is mostly poor or nonexistent, but this increase in plant life will add organic matter, and facilitate soil formation. This raises the risk of non-native and invasive species arriving, possibly carried by eco-tourists, scientists or other visitors to the continent.”

Earlier research from 2017 indicated that moss growth rates were increasing, but did not assess the total area covered.

A 2022 study found that Antarctica’s two native flowering plants were also spreading on Signy Island, north of the peninsula. Additionally, green algae are blooming across the melting snow on the peninsula.

Interestingly, trees once grew near the South Pole a few million years ago, when atmospheric CO2 levels were comparable to today’s. This suggests that the current changes could drastically reshape the Antarctic landscape.

 

——————————————————————————

At Natural World Fund, we are passionate about rewilding the UK to stop the decline in our wildlife.

Donate now and join in the solution!