First map of vegetation across Antarctica reveals a battle for the continent’s changing landscape

By Claudia Colesie, Senior Lecturer in Physiological Plant Ecology, The University of Edinburgh

A tiny seed is stuck between loose gravel and coarse sand. There is nothing else alive around it. All it can see is a wall of ice reaching 20 metres up into the sky. It is cold. Survival is hard around here. In winter, it is dark even during the day. In summer, the sun bakes the ground hard and dry for 24 hours.

The seed was left here by tourists several years ago, who came to see the wonders of the last remaining wilderness on planet Earth: Antarctica.

Life is changing. Warmer temperatures are melting the glaciers and the meltwater allows the seed to start growing. Antarctica…

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