Sustained greening of the Antarctic Peninsula observed from satellites

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.

Thomas P. Roland, Oliver T. Bartlett, Dan J. Charman, Karen Anderson, Dominic A. Hodgson, Matthew J. Amesbury, Ilya Maclean, Peter T. Fretwell, Andrew Fleming