Conservation baseline
The satellite survey of mosses, lichens and algae across the continent will form a baseline for monitoring how Antarctica’s vegetation responds to climate change.
Scientists used a European Space Agency satellite to sweep the continent, combined with field measurements taken over several summer seasons, and detected almost 45 square kilometers of vegetation – roughly three times the size of Lake Windermere in the Lake District, UK.
Monitoring growth
The international team, led by the University of Edinburgh with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, British Antarctic Survey and Scottish Association for Marine Science, found that over 80 per cent of the vegetation growth was contained within the Antarctic Peninsula and neighbouring islands.
The team estimates this growth makes up only 0.12 percent of Antarctica’s total ice-free area, highlighting the importance of monitoring key areas of vegetation abundance, which is inadequately protected under the existing Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) system, experts say.
Harsh conditions
Antarctic vegetation, dominated by mosses and lichens, has adapted to survive the harsh polar conditions and each type plays an important role in carbon and nutrient recycling on a local level, experts say. Until now, their spatial coverage and abundance across the continent remained unknown.
Strong barometers
Previous research has shown that the environmental sensitivity of Antarctica’s vegetative species makes them excellent barometers of regional climate change. Monitoring their presence in Antarctica, a minimally disturbed landscape, could provide clues as to how similar vegetation types may respond to climate in other fragile ecosystems across the globe, such as parts of the Arctic.