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Post by rugbytoffee on May 19, 2017 15:36:34 GMT
 Plant life on Antarctica is growing rapidly due to climate change, scientists have found. Few plants live on the continent but scientists studying moss have found a sharp increase in biological activity in the last 50 years. A team including scientists from the University of Exeter used moss bank cores - which are well preserved in Antarctica's cold conditions - from an area spanning about 400 miles. They tested five cores from three sites and found major biological changes had occurred over the past 50 years right across the Antarctic Peninsula. "Temperature increases over roughly the past half century on the Antarctic Peninsula have had a dramatic effect on moss banks growing in the region," said Dr Matt Amesbury, of the University of Exeter. "If this continues, and with increasing amounts of ice-free land from continued glacier retreat, the Antarctic Peninsula will be a much greener place in the future." Recent climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula is well documented with warming and other changes such as increased precipitation and wind strength. Weather records mostly began in the 1950s but biological records preserved in moss bank cores can provide a longer-term context about climate change. The scientists analysed data for the last 150 years, and found clear evidence of "changepoints" - points in time after which biological activity clearly increased - in the past 50 years. "The sensitivity of moss growth to past temperature rises suggests that ecosystems will alter rapidly under future warming, leading to major changes in the biology and landscape of this iconic region," said Professor Dan Charman, who led the research project in Exeter. "In short, we could see Antarctic greening to parallel well-established observations in the Arctic. "Although there was variability within our data, the consistency of what we found across different sites was striking." |
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