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Climate Change is Turning Antarctica Green, Say Researchers

posted by on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the i'd-settle-for-a-nice-shamrock dept.

DeathMonkey writes:

In the past 50 years the quantity and rate of plant growth has shot up, says study, suggesting further warming could lead to rapid ecosystem changes.

Antarctica may conjure up an image of a pristine white landscape, but researchers say climate change is turning the continent green.

Scientists studying banks of moss in Antarctica have found that the quantity of moss, and the rate of plant growth, has shot up in the past 50 years, suggesting the continent may have a verdant future.

"Antarctica is not going to become entirely green, but it will become more green than it currently is," said Matt Amesbury, co-author of the research from the University of Exeter.

"This is linking into other processes that are happening on the Antarctic Peninsula at the moment, particularly things like glacier retreat which are freeing up new areas of ice-free land – and the mosses particularly are very effective colonisers of those new areas," he added.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/may/18/climate-change-is-turning-antarctica-green-say-reseatchers

The study in question: Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:27AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:27AM (#512583) Journal

    Well, at least something is turning green.

    (what? you got tired waiting for the Orange one to turn hulky green? I mean - grin -)

    Green means the red and blue radiation are absorbed (as opposed to white, reflect all radiation).
    Photosynthesis' efficiency is 3-6%; the rest goes to melt the ice faster.

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  • (Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:16PM (1 child)

    by fraxinus-tree (5590) on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:16PM (#512593)

    Well, even those 3-6% will go to melt the ice. But meanwhile, they are trapping CO2.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:38PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:38PM (#512596) Journal

      Well, even those 3-6% will go to melt the ice.

      Those synthesized sugars (from water/CO2) traps the 3-6%. Until they aren't burned, that heat will stay trapped.

      Other than that, for trapping CO2, you should prefer blue-cyan rather than green - cyanobacteria [wikipedia.org] have higher conversion efficiency and they can fix nitrogen as well.
      A distant relative of our hemocyanin, I believe.

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