Acceleration of climate warming and plant dynamics in Antarctica

The strong air temperature warming between the 1950s and 2016 in the Antarctic Peninsula region1 exceeded the global average warming2,3 with evident impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and the two native Antarctic vascular plants Deschampsia antarctica Desv. and Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl.4–10 Subsequently, a short but intense cooling occurred from the Antarctic Peninsula to the South Orkney Islands (1999–2016),1,11–13 impacting terrestrial ecosystems, with reduced lichen growth14 and no further expansion of D. antarctica in the Argentine Islands.5 The strong warming trend is predicted to resume15 with expansion of ice-free areas and continued impacts on the abiotic and biotic components of terrestrial ecosystems including the ingression of non-native species3,8,16,17 as recently recorded at Signy Island (South Orkney Islands).18–20 In this study we document acceleration in the expansion of D. antarctica and C. quitensis in the last decade (2009–2018) at Signy Island, where the ...