It is difficult to imagine that a continent as cold as Antarctica, where the lowest temperatures on the planet are recorded, could have large concentrations of plants, right? But climate change is allowing just that. In the last half century biological activity has increased, according to a study published in the journal 'Current Biology'.
Will the continent turn green as it was some 52 million years ago?
The study, which was carried out by a team of scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge (United Kingdom), as well as the British Antarctic Survey, suggests that this idea is not as far-fetched as it was until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and humans begin to have a greater impact on the environment.
In 2013, a team of researchers focused on analyzing the moss cores found in the extreme south of the Antarctic Peninsula. Then they discovered that a major ecological change was indeed taking place. Now, When analyzing five more areas, it has been confirmed that this is a generalized change.
Antarctica is one of the places where the effects of climate change are being felt the most. The temperature has increased around 0,5ºC per decade since 1950. If this continues, as the ice melts there will be more free land, so it will more than likely be a much greener region in the future.
At the moment, plant life in this part of the world only exists on about 0,3% of the continent; However, climate change is turning it green. What could happen in the future? To find out, the researchers will examine biological records dating back thousands of years. So they can find out how climate change affected them in the past.
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