Moss growing on Antarctic Peninsula

The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, is the first peninsula-wide assessment of the biological response to recent warming and shows an increase in the growth of moss over the last 50 years. 

Researcher Matt Amesbury said this is an indication that “even apparently remote and pristine regions such as the Antarctic Peninsula are responding to human-induced climate change”.

The Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet over the second half of the 20^th century.

“Our work shows that moss growth has responded dramatically to that warming, with four to five-fold increases in growth rates before and after 1950 on average,” Dr Amesbury said. 

“It’s the widespread nature of the changes we recorded from multiple sites across a 100 kilometre transect that make us think that this is a response to warming, rather than any local effect.”

The researchers took cores from the layers of moss that can be found on the Antarctic Peninsula, which give a clear picture of growth over the years. 

Old moss growth is preserved by the cold temperatures, which prevents rapid decomposition, leading to accumulations of layers of moss over thousands of years.

Moss banks, therefore, give unique insights to the change in biological growth on the peninsula over tens and hundreds of years. 

Dr Amesbury said while Antarctica is getting greener, it will remain a predominantly icy landscape in the foreseeable future.

“Currently about 0.3 per cent of the entire continent is permanently ice free, with a large proportion of this in the Antarctic Peninsula,” he said. 

“Higher and/or increasing moss growth rates under future warming, as well as mosses colonising new areas of ice free land from processes such as glacier retreat, will drive the greening process.”