Sustained greening of the Antarctic Peninsula observed from satellites

Thomas Roland; Olly Bartlett; Dan Charman; Karen Anderson; Dominic Hodgson; Matthew Amesbury; Ilya Maclean; Peter Fretwell; Andrew Fleming

doi:10.1038/s41561-024-01564-5

Sustained greening of the Antarctic Peninsula observed from satellites

Thomas Roland, Olly Bartlett, Dan Charman, Karen Anderson, Dominic Hodgson, Matthew Amesbury, Ilya Maclean, Peter Fretwell, Andrew Fleming

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Abstract

The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced considerable anthropogenic warming in recent decades. While cryospheric responses are well defined, the responses of moss-dominated terrestrial ecosystems have not been quantified. Analysis of Landsat archives (1986–2021) using a Google Earth Engine cloud-processing workflow suggest widespread greening across the Antarctic Peninsula. The area of likely vegetation cover increased from 0.863 km2 in 1986 to 11.947 km2 in 2021, with an accelerated rate of change in recent years (2016–2021: 0.424 km2 yr−1) relative to the study period (1986–2021: 0.317 km2 yr−1). This trend echoes a wider pattern of greening in cold-climate ecosystems in response to recent warming, suggesting future widespread changes in the Antarctic Peninsula’s terrestrial ecosystems and their long-term functioning.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1121-1126
Number of pages	8
Journal	Nature Geoscience
Volume	17
Issue number	11
Early online date	4 Oct 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01564-5
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2024

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© 2024 Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, to view a copy of the license, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 1.98 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced considerable anthropogenic warming in recent decades. While cryospheric responses are well defined, the responses of moss-dominated terrestrial ecosystems have not been quantified. Analysis of Landsat archives (1986–2021) using a Google Earth Engine cloud-processing workflow suggest widespread greening across the Antarctic Peninsula. The area of likely vegetation cover increased from 0.863 km2 in 1986 to 11.947 km2 in 2021, with an accelerated rate of change in recent years (2016–2021: 0.424 km2 yr−1) relative to the study period (1986–2021: 0.317 km2 yr−1). This trend echoes a wider pattern of greening in cold-climate ecosystems in response to recent warming, suggesting future widespread changes in the Antarctic Peninsula{\textquoteright}s terrestrial ecosystems and their long-term functioning.",

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AU - Maclean, Ilya

AU - Fretwell, Peter

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Sustained greening of the Antarctic Peninsula observed from satellites

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