Thirty five years of satellite imagery show plant cover is increasing on the northernmost part of Antarctica. Areas of vegetation on the Antarctic Peninsula have increased from less than 0.9 square kilometres to almost 12 square kilometres, in a roughly 14-fold increase, from 1986 to 2021

Vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the last four decades, new research shows.

The Antarctic Peninsula, like many polar regions, is warming faster than the global average, with extreme heat events in Antarctica becoming more common.

The new study – by the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire, and the British Antarctic Survey – used satellite data to assess how much the Antarctic Peninsula has been “greening” in response to climate change.

It found that the area of vegetation cover across the Peninsula increased from less than one square kilometre in 1986 to almost 12 square kilometres by 2021.

Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the study also found this greening trend accelerated by over 30% in recent years (2016-2021) relative to the full study period (1986-2021) – expanding by over 400,000 square metres per year in this period

[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01564-5](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01564-5)