Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula
Recent climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula is well documented [1-5], with warming, alongside increases in precipitation, wind strength, and melt season length [1, 6, 7], driving environmental change [8, 9]. However, meteorological records mostly began in the 1950s, and paleoenvironmental datas...
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ftunivcam:oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/264686 2024-02-04T09:54:14+01:00 Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula Amesbury, MJ Roland, TP Royles, J Hodgson, DA Convey, P Griffiths, H Charman, DJ 2017-06-05 application/pdf https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264686 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10282 eng eng Cell Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.04.034 Current Biology https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264686 doi:10.17863/CAM.10282 Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Antarctic Peninsula moss bank productivity recent change sensitivity stable isotopes testate amoebae Article 2017 ftunivcam https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10282 2024-01-11T23:28:30Z Recent climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula is well documented [1-5], with warming, alongside increases in precipitation, wind strength, and melt season length [1, 6, 7], driving environmental change [8, 9]. However, meteorological records mostly began in the 1950s, and paleoenvironmental datasets that provide a longer-term context to recent climate change are limited in number and often from single sites [7] and/or discontinuous in time [10, 11]. Here we use moss bank cores from a 600-km transect from Green Island (65.3°S) to Elephant Island (61.1°S) as paleoclimate archives sensitive to regional temperature change, moderated by water availability and surface microclimate [12, 13]. Mosses grow slowly, but cold temperatures minimize decomposition, facilitating multi-proxy analysis of preserved peat [14]. Carbon isotope discrimination (Δ(13)C) in cellulose indicates the favorability of conditions for photosynthesis [15]. Testate amoebae are representative heterotrophs in peatlands [16-18], so their populations are an indicator of microbial productivity [14]. Moss growth and mass accumulation rates represent the balance between growth and decomposition [19]. Analyzing these proxies in five cores at three sites over 150 years reveals increased biological activity over the past ca. 50 years, in response to climate change. We identified significant changepoints in all sites and proxies, suggesting fundamental and widespread changes in the terrestrial biosphere. The regional sensitivity of moss growth to past temperature rises suggests that terrestrial ecosystems will alter rapidly under future warming, leading to major changes in the biology and landscape of this iconic region-an Antarctic greening to parallel well-established observations in the Arctic [20]. This research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Antarctic Funding Initiative grant 11/05 (NE/H014896/1) held by D.J.C., D.A.H., P.C., and H.G. P.C., D.A.H., and J.R. contribute to the BAS “Polar Science for Planet Earth” ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Arctic Climate change Elephant Island Green Island Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository Arctic Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Elephant Island ENVELOPE(-55.184,-55.184,-61.085,-61.085) Green Island ENVELOPE(-55.398,-55.398,49.517,49.517) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcam |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctic Peninsula moss bank productivity recent change sensitivity stable isotopes testate amoebae |
spellingShingle |
Antarctic Peninsula moss bank productivity recent change sensitivity stable isotopes testate amoebae Amesbury, MJ Roland, TP Royles, J Hodgson, DA Convey, P Griffiths, H Charman, DJ Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula |
topic_facet |
Antarctic Peninsula moss bank productivity recent change sensitivity stable isotopes testate amoebae |
description |
Recent climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula is well documented [1-5], with warming, alongside increases in precipitation, wind strength, and melt season length [1, 6, 7], driving environmental change [8, 9]. However, meteorological records mostly began in the 1950s, and paleoenvironmental datasets that provide a longer-term context to recent climate change are limited in number and often from single sites [7] and/or discontinuous in time [10, 11]. Here we use moss bank cores from a 600-km transect from Green Island (65.3°S) to Elephant Island (61.1°S) as paleoclimate archives sensitive to regional temperature change, moderated by water availability and surface microclimate [12, 13]. Mosses grow slowly, but cold temperatures minimize decomposition, facilitating multi-proxy analysis of preserved peat [14]. Carbon isotope discrimination (Δ(13)C) in cellulose indicates the favorability of conditions for photosynthesis [15]. Testate amoebae are representative heterotrophs in peatlands [16-18], so their populations are an indicator of microbial productivity [14]. Moss growth and mass accumulation rates represent the balance between growth and decomposition [19]. Analyzing these proxies in five cores at three sites over 150 years reveals increased biological activity over the past ca. 50 years, in response to climate change. We identified significant changepoints in all sites and proxies, suggesting fundamental and widespread changes in the terrestrial biosphere. The regional sensitivity of moss growth to past temperature rises suggests that terrestrial ecosystems will alter rapidly under future warming, leading to major changes in the biology and landscape of this iconic region-an Antarctic greening to parallel well-established observations in the Arctic [20]. This research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Antarctic Funding Initiative grant 11/05 (NE/H014896/1) held by D.J.C., D.A.H., P.C., and H.G. P.C., D.A.H., and J.R. contribute to the BAS “Polar Science for Planet Earth” ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Amesbury, MJ Roland, TP Royles, J Hodgson, DA Convey, P Griffiths, H Charman, DJ |
author_facet |
Amesbury, MJ Roland, TP Royles, J Hodgson, DA Convey, P Griffiths, H Charman, DJ |
author_sort |
Amesbury, MJ |
title |
Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_short |
Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full |
Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_fullStr |
Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full_unstemmed |
Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_sort |
widespread biological response to rapid warming on the antarctic peninsula |
publisher |
Cell Press |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264686 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10282 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-55.184,-55.184,-61.085,-61.085) ENVELOPE(-55.398,-55.398,49.517,49.517) |
geographic |
Arctic Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Elephant Island Green Island |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Elephant Island Green Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Arctic Climate change Elephant Island Green Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Arctic Climate change Elephant Island Green Island |
op_relation |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264686 doi:10.17863/CAM.10282 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10282 |
_version_ |
1789971936868040704 |