Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Antarctic Spring?

The Antarctic only has two endemic (native) flowering plants. These are Antarctic hairgrass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). The distributions of these two plants have been monitored on the fringes of that continent, since 1960 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/14/flourishing-plants-show-warming-antarctica-undergoing-major-change-aoe). Antarctic hairgrass spread 5 times more between 2009 and 2018 than between 1960 and 2009. A similar comparison for Antarctic pearlwort found a 10 times greater spread for the more recent dates. This means that both plants have spread much more widely in recent times, than they did in the previous 50. That's a pretty powerful illustration of the effects of warming temperatures on Antarctica.
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