NEW DELHI: Antarctica is turning clean “dramatically”, with the trend accelerated by more than 30 % in recent years, compared to the past three years, a new study has found. Between 1986 and 2021, vegetation cover on the Antarctic Peninsula increased by about tenfold from less than a kilometer to nearly 12 kilometres, according to research results.
The experts, including those at the University of Exeter, UK, used satellite information to calculate the “greening” price of the Antarctic Peninsula in response to climate change.
The authors wrote in the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience that” this recent acceleration in the rate of change in vegetation cover ( 2016-2021 ) coincides with a marked decrease in sea-ice extent in Antarctica over the same period.
The study provides proof that a popular sustainable pattern, across the Antarctic Peninsula, is under way and accelerating, they said.
Intense heat events are becoming more frequent in Antarctica as the world’s climate is shown to be occurring more quickly than the world average.
According to related author Thomas Roland, University of Exeter,” the plants we find on the Antarctic Peninsula, mostly moss, grow in probably the harshest conditions on Earth.”
Just a small percentage of the environment, which is still mostly dominated by snow, ice, and rock, is colonized by grow life, which “dramatically” shows that even this great and remote “wilderness” is affected by human-caused climate change, Roland said.
Corresponding artist Oliver Bartlett, University of Hertfordshire, UK, said that as the weather warms and these flower communities establish themselves more, it is likely that the transformation will improve.
Antarctica’s land is typically inadequate or nonexistent, but this increase in plant lifestyle will add organic matter and help soil formation, possible allowing for the growth of other plants, according to Bartlett.
The researchers said the investigation raised severe concerns about the future of Antarctica and called for more studies to be done to understand the mechanisms underlying the sustainable trend.
” The sensitivity of the Antarctic Peninsula’s vegetation to climate change is now clear and, under future ( human-caused ) warming, we could see fundamental changes to the biology and landscape of this iconic and vulnerable region”, Roland said.
” In order to protect Antarctica, we must understand these modifications and identify specifically what is causing them”, he added.
