The Impact of a Large-Scale Climate Event on Antarctic Ecosystem Processes

© 2016 The Author(s) 2016. Extreme climate and weather events, such as a drought, hurricanes, or ice storms, can strongly imprint ecosystem processing and may alter ecosystem structure. Ecosystems in extreme environments are particularly vulnerable because of their adaptation to severe limitations i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BioScience
Main Authors: Fountain, Andrew G., Saba, Grace, Adams, Byron, Doran, Peter, Fraser, William, Gooseff, Michael, Obryk, Maciej, Priscu, John C., Stammerjohn, Sharon, Virginia, Ross A.
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: LSU Digital Commons 2016
Subjects:
climate change
coastal ecosystems
deserts
microbiology
Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
polar desert
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/596
https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw110
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/context/geo_pubs/article/1595/viewcontent/596.pdf
Description
Summary:© 2016 The Author(s) 2016. Extreme climate and weather events, such as a drought, hurricanes, or ice storms, can strongly imprint ecosystem processing and may alter ecosystem structure. Ecosystems in extreme environments are particularly vulnerable because of their adaptation to severe limitations in energy, water, or nutrients. The vulnerability can be expressed as a relatively long-lasting ecosystem response to a small or brief change in environmental conditions. Such an event occurred in Antarctica and affected two vastly different ecosystems: a marine-dominated coastal system and a terrestrial polar desert. Both sites experienced winds that warmed air temperatures above the 0°C threshold, resulting in extensive snow and ice melt and triggering a series of cascading effects through the ecosystems that are continuing to play out more than a decade later. This highlights the sensitivity of Antarctic ecosystems to warming events, which should occur more frequently in the future with global climate warming.

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