Antarctic’s Rising Temperatures Are Causing Native Plants to Flourish

Warming Temperatures Are Turning Antarctica Green

by Elizabeth Gamillo/Smithsonianmag.com

Rising temperatures over Antarctica’s harsh landscape are causing two native plant species to flourish and spread across the continent. Between 2009 and 2019, plant cover has increased more than in the last 50 years combined and corresponds with rising air temperatures and declining fur seal populations, reports Phoebe Weston for the Guardian. The study published this week in Current Biology is the first to show the accelerated impacts of climate warming in polar ecosystems.

“Antarctica is acting as a canary in a coal mine,” Nicoletta Cannone, an ecologist at the University of Insubria and the study’s lead author, told Gizmodo’s Molly Taft.

Antarctic hair grass, Deschampsia Antarctica, and Antarctic pearlwort, Colobanthus quitensis, are the only two native flowering plant species on the southernmost continent. They can withstand the continent’s frigid temperature and photosynthesize at temperatures below zero while covered in snow, Cannone explained to Gizmodo.

Researchers focused their observations on these plants on Signy Island and compared them to extensive records detailing plant growth recorded since the 1960s, Gizmodo reports. The team found that the plants are flourishing in a warmer climate. Antarctic pearlwort, a small plant with yellow blossoms, …read more:

Carol Duff, MSN, BA, RN

Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.

She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.

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