Grass flourishes in warmer Antarctic

The Sunday Times - Britain ^ | December 26, 2004 | Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Grass flourishes in warmer Antarctic

Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

GRASS has become established in Antarctica for the first time, showing the continent is warming to temperatures unseen for 10,000 years.

Scientists have reported that broad areas of grass are now forming turf where there were once ice-sheets and glaciers.

Tufts have previously grown on patches of Antarctica in summer, but the scientists have now observed bigger areas surviving winter and spreading in the summer months. Some fear the change portends a much wider melting of the ice-cap that formed at least 20m years ago.

Pete Convey, an ecologist conducting research with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said: “Grass has taken a grip. There are very rapid changes going on in the Antarctic’s climate, allowing grass to colonise areas that would once have been far too cold.”

Convey said many species of wildlife were at serious risk from such rapid change including penguins, seals, cold-water fish and giant sea spiders.

The findings come at a politically sensitive time with Europe and America clashing over the latter’s refusal to sign up to the Kyoto treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The confrontation may worsen with Tony Blair saying he is determined to push the issue up the international agenda when Britain assumes the presidencies of the European Union and the G8 countries next year.

The latest research was carried out on the Antarctic peninsula, which juts northwards towards Cape Horn, and the islands around it. More strongly influenced by changes in sea and air temperatures than the rest of Antarctica, these areas are an excellent place to measure effects of climate change.

Measurements over the past three decades show these are among the fastest-warming places on earth, with winter temperatures already 5C higher than in 1974. Many glaciers and ice-sheets are melting.

Convey said Antarctic hair grass and another species called pearlwort were the only complex plants capable of surviving on the Antarctic mainland. He said: “In the past they were at the limit of their range. They used to appear sporadically with one or a few plants growing in sheltered north-facing areas where birds or the wind dropped the seeds but they never did very well.

“What we are seeing now is dense swards or lawns forming and both plants growing much further south than ever before. It is quite remarkable.”

Research by Convey and his colleagues suggests one of the main reasons for the change is that the rising temperatures have brought forward the start of the Antarctic spring and delayed the onset of autumn, enabling the grass to produce mature seed which germinates and becomes established.

Antarctica has not always been ice-bound. It once had a temperate climate and was covered in dense vegetation. The Antarctic Peninsula was then joined to South America, creating a continuous land barrier along which warm water flowed southwards from the tropics. This water warmed Antarctica in the same way that the Gulf Stream now warms parts of Britain and northern Europe.

About 30m years ago, however, movements of the Earth’s crust carried South America northwards, cutting off the warm water. It was replaced by the circumpolar current in which extremely cold water flows in a constant circle around Antarctica, keeping it frozen and isolated.

John King, principal investigator for the BAS climate change programme, said: “We have also seen a sharp increase in the Roaring Forties, the powerful westerly winds that prevail around the Antarctic. One theory is that global warming is strengthening these winds.”

King and his colleagues believe such trends could continue, possibly even raising winter temperatures on the peninsula from their past average of -10C to near freezing. Eventually this could give the peninsula a climate comparable to that of Scandinavia.

A further climate alert is to be raised by Professor Lloyd Peck, Convey’s colleague at BAS. He will deliver a stark warning in the Royal Institution’s annual Christmas lectures on Channel 4 this week. Peck said this weekend: “Climate change in Antarctica is a warning of the globally catastrophic changes that will follow unless we act now.”

[Finny]

It fascinates me to see the same people who push the idea of natural selection also proposing to keep nature at the status quo.

Agreed, that is foolish to think that the planet will now or has ever maintained a status quo. It is, like life, dynamic.

From what I have read, natural selection is not an "idea," but an observed phenomenon in plant life as well as bacteria and in some insects. How do you think bacteria and viruses become immune to vaccines??? It's worth pointing out, too, that there is nothing in the process of natural selection that negates the moral teachings of Christ.

If you are implying that only environmentalists, atheists, and liberals "believe" in evolution, you are very much mistaken. Natural selection is like mathematics -- it's there whether you like it or not.

A hypothetical example: moths that, like people, vary in color, suddenly find themselves in an environment where the pale ones are easily spotted and eaten by predators, and the dark ones are not. The dark ones are the ones that remain to reproduce, and their offspring are more likely to be dark. Hence after a few generations, most of the moths are dark -- though never ALL of them, because genetics don't work that way -- there will always be a certain number of genetic inheritance combinations that some moths will come up pale, and vice versa. The environmental surroundings change so that suddenly it's the dark ones that are more easily spotted by predators and the pale ones that survive to reproduce, and within a few generations, most are pale. This is not an "idea" that someone has pushed, it's like math: it happens.

An entomologist who is a proponent of "outsmarting" bug pests as opposed to using pesticides, explained it to me once very well -- that plants and insects (short life spans, rapid propagation) are constantly one-upping each other throught natural selection -- the bugs go after the plants, the plants "evolve" (through natural selection) a defense mechanism, the insects natural-select their way to defeat the defense, and so forth.

I am a Christian and have a deep belief in God, Christ, and faith in the bible's moral teachings. I believe the bible speaks in parables much of the time, especially in describing geologic events. God works His wonders in strange and mysterious ways. People who deny natural selection and evolution because it's Just Not the Way God Would Do It stump me -- who are they to say how God works His wonders, and who are they to say that Genesis doesn't speak in parables?

End rant

[Necrovore]

So, Antarctica is warming up and grass is growing. Interesting. It isn't like Antarctica was always covered in ice. I suppose that the "scientists" who are "warning" us about "global warming" have never seen the Piri Re'is Map of 1513 or the Oronteus Finaeus World Map of 1532. both show sub glacial areas of Antarctica, the Finaeus map moreso. Both maps were drawn using older source maps. Perhaps we are not looking at "global warming" but a shift of the Earth's axis.

[FreedomFarmer]

Winter Rules?

[CzarNicky]

King and his colleagues believe such trends could continue, possibly even raising winter temperatures on the peninsula from their past average of -10C to near freezing. Eventually this could give the peninsula a climate comparable to that of Scandinavia.

The last thing we need are more Scandinavians

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A good rant.

[Dan Evans]

As I recall, most of Antarctica cooled quite a bit during the 90's but the big story was on the Antarctic peninsula where it was warming. Very selective reporting on the part of the green press.

[Dan Evans]

From Christian Science Monitor.
January 18, 2002

Guess what? Antarctica's getting colder, not warmer

... Dr. Dornan's study points to an average cooling of 0.7 degrees per decade from 1986 to 2000 at the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Station. Using estimates from British data taken since 1966, the team calculates that the cooling trend has been under way since at least that date."

The report, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, appears to confirm a study published last year in the Journal of Climate by Josephino Comiso, an atmospheric scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Using satellite data for the months of January and July from 1979 to 1999, he reported a drop in the continent's average temperature that amounted to 0.4 degrees per decade.

http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2002/0118/p02s01-usgn.html

[JustDoItAlways]

Anybody try to grow grass in a cold climate.

Grass seeds are only good for a few years. The roots can recover if they are not frozen for 10,000 years. IE, this is such BS.

I really hate this junk science stuff and the worst thing is that it will become a known "fact" in no time, that grass is taking over Antartica (which has been frozen for 40 million years now.) It is such a battle for the scientific community to go against the stream when these factoids get reported so widely and become part of the cultural myths.

[ApplegateRanch]

Who wants to join me in setting up a cattle ranch in the real "down under"?

You "open range types" better stay outta muh way. I plan on running boatloads of rufugee Malaysian/Indonesian/Micronesian sod-busters there from their drowning islands.

Just a word of warning, Pilgrim: Remember what happened to Liberty Valence!

[skinkinthegrass]

*best Frankie Layne voice* "..Rollin, Rollin Rollin, Keep them doggies a' Rollin, keep them dogies Rollin, RAWHHHHIDE! " ...where's my Kayak? :^)

[Dan Evans]

This hasn't been the first time grass has been noticed growing on the Antarctic Peninsula"

"The island has a relatively diverse flora and luxuriant development of plant communities, representative of the southern maritime Antarctic region. The rich terrestrial biology of Lagotellerie Island was first noted by Herwil Bryant, biologist at East Base (US, on Stonington Island; now Historic Monument No. 55), during a visit in 1940-41 when he observed growths of moss, the Antarctic hair grass Deschampsia antarctica, and "a small flowering plant" (almost certainly the Antarctic pearlwort Colobanthus quitensis), in a small gully – believed to be that found at the north-eastern end of the island – which he considered of such unusual richness for the region that he unofficially referred to it as "Shangri-la Valley".

"He did not describe the less luxuriant but more extensive communities of Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis found on the higher north-facing slopes of the island. These slopes and terraces also provide favourable microclimatic conditions for growth, with a relatively long snow-free growing season, and support an abundance of Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis, the grass forming closed swards of up to 10 m2 on some of the terraces.

"These are among the largest stands of these plants known south of the South Shetland Islands. Both species flower abundantly and the seeds have a greater viability than those produced in the South Orkney or South Shetland Islands, yet they are close to the southern limit of their range. Lagotellerie Island, however, is notable for the growth of Deschampsia antarctica at the highest altitude recorded south of 56° S, with scattered small plants observed at heights of up to 275 m. Colobanthus quitensis has been observed growing up to 120 m on the island."

http://www.scar.org/publications/bulletins/143/spa19/

[x1stcav]

There goes the neighborhood.

[Seadog Bytes]

RE: "It fascinates me to see the same people who push the idea of natural selection also proposing to keep nature at the status quo."

Yes...and by FORCE if necessary!

[Dan from Michigan]

I wish global warming in the winter hit us here. This is one of the worst winters in a long long time here.

[farmfriend]

Have you guys gotten above 10 degrees in the last month?

[farmfriend]

If you are implying that only environmentalists, atheists, and liberals "believe" in evolution, you are very much mistaken.

You are reading waaaaaay too much into my post. Please leave me out of the Evo/Creation debate raging on this forum.

[Dan from Michigan]

Yeah...for about a day or two.

I'm a hunter so I can usually handle the cold, but this is BAD.

[fella]

And just, pray tell, did the grass seed come from? And enough of it to cover vast areas?

[farmfriend]

So I hear from my friend in the UP. She said it was going to get down to -10 that one night. Actual temp.

[farmfriend]

I don't know...it is rather beautiful though....

Looks more like a jellyfish than a spider.