Antarctic Peninsula gets greener

Peninsula is turning green, with rising temperatures having a kdramatic effecty on the growth of moss, scientists have discovered. Since 1950, temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by about 0.5oC each decade—much faster than the global average. And growth rates of moss after 1950 have been four to five times the level before that year, according to a study by the UK-based researchers who studied three sites across a 1,000km stretch of the peninsula.

Researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey studied a 150-year period of moss growth in the Antarctic Peninsula by taking samples from the material laid down each year. The researchers, also looked into how sensitive the moss would be to further warming.

k7KH results of that analysis lead us to believe there will be a future greening of the Antarctic and a further increase in moss growth rates,y Matt Amesbury, one of the study authors said. However, the Antarctic has a long way to go before its appearance is radically transformed. kThere is 0.34 per cent of the entire Antarctic continent that is predominantly ice-free. Whilst we are talking about a greening and our results show quite strongly that there is likely to be increased moss growth in terms of the rate and spatial coverage, as a whole the Antarctic will remain a white place for a long time to come,y said Amesbury.