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.
The study in question: Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:09AM
THE O2 CONSPIRACY
Historical perspective on the post WW3 events that finally uncovered the alien agenda of keeping humankind slave of a technocratic byzantine corrupt global system by preventing co2 to provide lush vegetation and hunting gathering lifestyle for everybody. Endorsed by tribal leader Elizabeth Trumpine the XXII
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:11AM (3 children)
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:27AM (2 children)
(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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:16PM (1 child)
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
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:37AM (1 child)
That's the face of the global anthropogenic climate change. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253.full [sciencemag.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:01PM
death, destruction, and moss
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:03PM (5 children)
The gaurdian also shared this the other day: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts [theguardian.com]
It is about a doomsday seed vault in the arctic meant to protect against disasters like climate change. According to the gaurdian, the people running it were idiots. Idiots who didnt think ahead that the ice they put it in might melt due to climate change, so it is threatened after only 10 yrs. Of course, this narrative is too ridiculous to be true so I wonder what is really going on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:06PM (1 child)
guardian
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:03PM
Grauniad
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 20 2017, @01:44PM (2 children)
Maybe it's better to put in the ground inside the Antarctic Plateau? really cold and far away from just about anything?
With an average high of −26.0 °C in January and average low of −63.4 °C in July it should keep most things cold around the year. Besides getting into the ground ought to be easy. Just melt the ice..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @08:31PM (1 child)
No, burying it in ice without planning for the ice melting is idiotic. Put it in a mountain instead, one where no glaciers should reach even if we hit the depths of an ice age[1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vostok_Petit_data.svg [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:16PM
Is there any mountain that is cold enough?
And won't flood the facility..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:16PM (1 child)
It sounds like the area with more moss has been cooling rather than warming, doesn't this go against their narrative that warming -> more moss?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:26PM
Winter is coming.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday May 20 2017, @09:08PM
I'll wait for Al Gore to make a (new) movie about with some flow charts and stuff. It's not true until then ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @01:18AM
Just eat a smaller steak