Flowers in Antarctica are starting to bloom and experts say it is not good news

In 2022, scientists at the University of Insubria, Italy released a study that took into account the populations of Antarctica’s two native vascular plants (which have specialized vascular tissues for the transport of water, minerals, and food) on the local Signy Island between 2009 and 2019.

These two plants — the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis) — were found to have erupted numbers-wise over the 10-year study period — much more compared to the previous 50 years, in fact.

The majority of the Antarctic continent is covered by permanent ice and snow leaving less than 1% available for colonisation by plants. Most of this ice and snow-free land is found along the Antarctic Peninsula, its associated islands and in coastal regions around the edge of the rest of the Antarctic continent. Even in the most inhospitable ice-free habitats, such as inland mountains and nunataks, life can still be found.

There are no trees or shrubs, and only two species of flowering plants are found: Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). These occur on the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands and along the western Antarctic Peninsula. Of course, the team managed to link the phenomenon to rising air temperatures, which began escalating quickly in Antarctica in the summer of 2012, as well as the severely diminished number of fur seals — inhabitants that are known to trample such plants and reduce their numbers.

The vegetation is predominantly made up of lower plant groups (mosses, liverworts, lichens and fungi) that are specially adapted to surviving in extreme environments – in particular tolerating low temperatures and dehydration.

There are around 100 species of mosses, 25 species of liverworts, 300 to 400 species of lichens and 20-odd species of macro-fungi. The greatest diversity of species is found along the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula where the climate is generally warmer and wetter than elsewhere in the Antarctic continent.

Certain species of moss and lichen, however, have a widespread distribution and others specialise in surviving in very extreme conditions. In the dry valleys of Victoria Land, for example, where it is very dry and extremely cold, algae, fungi and lichens are found living in cracks and pore spaces inside the sandstone and granite rocks.