Snowy Antarctica is known for its vast white landscapes. But according to a new study, extreme heat events and climate change are turning parts of the continent greener. Scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire used satellite imagery and data to analyze vegetation levels in Antarctica, which is warming at a much faster rate than the global average. according to cnnThe team of researchers found plant life – mostly mosses – and said the green cover had increased 10-fold over the past four decades, or 40 years.
The study was published on Friday in the journal nature geology,
The study found that from just 0.4 square miles in 1986, vegetation cover reached nearly 5 square miles in 2021. Over a five-year period – from 2016 to 2021 – there was an increase of more than 30 percent.
“Our findings confirm that the reach of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change knows no bounds,” said Thomas Rowland, a study author and environmental scientist at the University of Exeter. cnn“Even on the Antarctic Peninsula – this most extreme, remote and isolated ‘wilderness’ area – the landscape is changing, and these effects are visible from space.”
Although the landscape is almost entirely snowy, these researchers found that green cover had increased dramatically.
At a conference in Chile in August, about 1,500 academics, researchers and scientists discussed whether extreme climate events mean Antarctica has reached a tipping point, or accelerated and irreversible sea ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. is the point of.
“You can see the same increase in CO2 over thousands of years, and now it’s happened over 100 years,” said palaeoclimate expert Liz Keller of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, has seen extreme heat events.
In the summer months this year, average temperatures across the continent climbed as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.
In March 2022, temperatures in parts of Antarctica reached 70 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, the most extreme temperature change ever recorded on the continent.
