Not even the coldest continent in the world is immune to rising global temperatures. As drought and wildfires ravaged areas like Australia, an international team of scientists just recorded the first heat wave event in Antarctica during the 2019-20 summer period.
A heat wave in the coldest place on the planet
A heat wave is determined by on three consecutive days with extreme maximum and minimum temperatures. And so it has been according to records from Casey Station in East Antarctica earlier this year, in January. Record temperatures were also recorded at the bases of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Between January 23 and 26, the minimum temperatures were above zero degrees Celsius while the maximums reached a maximum of 7.5 degrees . On January 24, Casey’s team recorded a record temperature of 9.2 degrees Celsius, 6.9 degrees higher than the average high for the Antarctic season.
At the same time, record temperatures were also recorded on the other side of the continent, on the Antarctic Peninsula. During the month of February, the highest temperature ever recorded was 18.3 degrees, followed by an alarming reading of 20.7 degrees Celsius just a week later, at Argentina’s Base Esperanza research station.
These patterns were influenced in part by the early rupture of the ozone hole in late 2019, due to rapid warming in the stratosphere.
In the work, published in the journal Global Change Biolog and by scientists from the University of Wollongong (UOW), the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), the University of Tasmania and the University of Santiago in Chile, they therefore confirm the first heat wave from the icy continent and its impact on the plants, animals and ecosystems of Antarctica.
What harm can it do to fauna and flora? Long-term consequences
“Based on our experience of previous anomalous hot summers in Antarctica, we can expect a multitude of biological impacts to be reported in the coming years, ” the authors explain.
Animal and plant life on the isolated continent could be drastically affected by climate change . High temperatures will precipitate increased snowmelt, which could cause dramatic changes in invertebrate and microbial communities.
Such high temperatures can cause heat stress in some of your organisms, and while the concrete impact won’t be entirely clear for years, researchers already have an idea of what it will mean for the ecosystem.
” Most life exists in small ice-free oases in Antarctica, and it relies heavily on melting snow and ice for its water supply, ” says Antarctic ecologist Dana Bergstrom. “Meltwater floods can provide additional water to these desert ecosystems, leading to increased growth and reproduction of mosses, lichens, microbes and invertebrates. However, excessive flooding can wipe out plants and alter the composition of invertebrate communities and microbial mats . If the ice melts completely early in the season, ecosystems will experience drought for the rest of the season . “
The warming trend continues to continue across the planet: January 2020 was rated the hottest January in the 141-year climate record.
Referencia: Sharon A. Robinson et al. The 2019/2020 summer of Antarctic heatwaves, Global Change Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15083
