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Ecology

The secret of success

Nature Climate Change volume 1, pages 28–29 (2011)Cite this article

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Flowering plants have expanded rapidly in Antarctica over the past 50 years. A study now reveals that an efficient way of acquiring nitrogen from protein-rich soils as they decompose has allowed these plants to take full advantage of a warming climate.

Life is scarce on Antarctica. Two of the most important constraints on biological activity are low temperatures — which have a limiting effect on photosynthesis in this part of the world — and a lack of liquid water (which is trapped as snow and ice). Climate change is already lifting these constraints and thereby stimulating changes in the ecosystems that occupy the ice-free pockets of the continent. In particular, there has been a dramatic increase in the abundance and ranges of two species of flowering higher (or vascular) plants in coastal zones4. The expansion has been greatest for Antarctic hair grass: the size of most populations of this species has increased by about an order of magnitude since the middle of the twentieth century.

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Figure 1: Monitoring the expansion of flowering plants in the maritime Antarctic.

© NICOLETTA CANNONE

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  1. Department of Chemical and Environmental Sciences Via Lucini, Nicoletta Cannone is at Insubria University, 3, 22100 Como, Italy,

    Nicoletta Cannone

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  1. Nicoletta Cannone
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Correspondence to Nicoletta Cannone.

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Cannone, N. The secret of success. Nature Clim Change 1, 28–29 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1077

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