Growth of Antarctic

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.645.6260; http://www.ansto.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/62966/Growth_of_Antarctic_mosses_stunted_by_climate_change.pdf

mosses stunted by climate change The growth of long-lived Antarctic mosses has slowed drastically since the 1980s due to climate change and the ozone hole, say scientists. Scientists used radiocarbon dating to estimate the age of Antarctic mosses and to find out how quickly they grow. The samples were analysed using a particle accelerator at ANSTO. They found that some of the mosses are more than 100 years old and are very slow-growing, increasing in length at a maximum 3.5 mm a year. “Remarkably, these plants were already growing during the times of Antarctic exploration, ” says Professor Sharon Robinson, from the University of Wollongong. “These mosses are effectively the old growth forests of Antarctica – in miniature.”