The coldest, windiest and most inhospitable ice-clad Antarctica Peninsula, a vast territory belonging to no one nation is witnessing a dramatic greening!

Viewing this trend as a stark warning rather than a hopeful sign, climate change experts have raised alarms. Not without reasons. Vegetation, particularly moss and algae, have surged by more than tenfold over the last four decades from less than one square kilometer in 1986 to nearly 12 square kilometers by 2021.

The rapid expansion of plant life highlights the profound impacts of global warming and the potential for cascading effects on the region’s ecosystems, said researchers from the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire, along with the British Antarctic Survey after analysing satellite data to document this phenomenon.

Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the findings revealed that vegetation cover trend accelerated by over 30 per cent in recent years (2016-2021), adding more than 400,000 square meters annually, as per the study.

In a previous study that examined core samples from moss-dominated ecosystems on the Antarctic Peninsula, researchers had found compelling evidence of dramatically increased plant growth rates in recent decades. Building on this base, the new study uses satellite imagery to confirm that a widespread greening trend is not only occurring but also accelerating across the Antarctic Peninsula.

“The plants we find on the Antarctic Peninsula mostly mosses grow in perhaps the harshest conditions on Earth,” said Dr Thomas Roland, from the University of Exeter.

“The landscape is still almost entirely dominated by snow, ice and rock, with only a tiny fraction colonised by plant life.

“But that tiny fraction has grown dramatically showing that even this vast and isolated ‘wilderness’ is being affected by anthropogenic climate change.”

“As these ecosystems become more established  and the climate continues to warm it’s likely that the extent of greening will increase.

“Soil in Antarctica is mostly poor or non-existent, but this increase in plant life will add organic matter, and facilitate soil formation potentially paving the way for other plants to grow. “This raises the risk of non-native and invasive species arriving, possibly carried by eco-tourists, scientists or other visitors to the continent,” said Dr Olly Bartlett, from the University of Hertfordshire.

The researchers emphasised the urgent need for further research to establish the specific climate and environmental mechanisms that are driving the “greening” trend.