Climate change creating new ice-free areas in Antarctica, biodiversity at risk: study

World
Europe

Antarctica is under threat of increased melting of its ice deposits and climate change is the culprit, according to new research published this week in the journal Nature.

Ice-free areas in the southernmost continent could expand by up to 25 percent by the year 2100, the data suggests, resulting in a substantial shift in the existing biodiversity, according to the Australian scientists.

The lead scientist on the project, Jasmine Lee, told Xinhua recently that the impact of climate change on the ice-free areas, rather than the surrounding ice, is important to better understand the overall ecological situation in the region.

"Until now, Antarctic climate change research has focused mainly on ice sheets and the potential impact on global sea level rise, while the effect of climate change on ice melt and native Antarctic biodiversity has been largely overlooked," Lee said.

NASA's satellite detected extensive areas of snowmelt , shown in yellow and red , in west Antarctica. /VCG Photo

"Permanently ice free areas range in size from less than one square kilometre to thousands of square kilometres and they are an important breeding ground for seals and seabirds."

"They are also home to small invertebrates such as springtails and nematodes, and vegetation including fungi, lichen and moss, many of which occur nowhere else in the world," she added.

The effect of climate change has the potential to be "good and bad" for the plants and animals in the region according to Lee, who said that new habitats would be created as the ice dissipated.

"It will be good because it might provide some new opportunities for native Antarctic species to spread out and colonise. But, these opportunities will also be provided to non-native (or alien) species," Lee said.

Climate change is threatening the existing biodiversity in Antarctica. /VCG Photo

One of the other researchers on the project, Dr Aleks Terauds, senior research scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division, said that their data allows them to predict that up to 17,267 square kilometers of ice-free areas will emerge by the end of the century.

"There will be winners and losers amongst Antarctic plants and animals, but we are not yet sure which ones they will be," said Lee.

(Source: Xinhua)

14025km