A new study conducted by the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire and the British Antarctic Survey has found that vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the last four decades.
Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the study used satellite data to assess the pace of greening and detailed how the area of vegetation cover increased from less than one square kilometre to 11.947 km2 between 1986 and 2021.
Moreover, the greening trend was found to have accelerated by over 30 per cent between 2016 and 2021, expanding by over 400,000 square metres per year during this period.
According to the report, this trend reflects a wider pattern of greening in cold-climate ecosystems in response to recent warming, suggesting future widespread changes in the Antarctic Peninsula’s terrestrial ecosystems and their long-term functioning.
“The sensitivity of the Antarctic Peninsula’s vegetation to climate change is now clear and, under future anthropogenic warming, we could see fundamental changes to the biology and landscape of this iconic and vulnerable region,” said Dr Thomas Roland from the University of Exeter.
Adding: “Our findings raise serious concerns about the environmental future of the Antarctic Peninsula, and of the continent as a whole. In order to protect Antarctica, we must understand these changes and identify precisely what is causing them.”
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