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The few plant that live in Antarctica today are hardy hanger - on , growing just a few week out of the year and outlive poor ground , lack of pelting and very little sunlight . But long ago , some region of Antarctica were almost lucullan .
raw research finds that between about 15 million and 20 million yr ago , plant life thrived on the coast of the southernmost continent . Ancient pollen sample suggest that the landscape painting was a bit like today ’s Chilean Andes : grassy tundradotted with small tree .
An artist’s interpretation of what middle Miocene Antarctica might have looked like. Shrubs and even stunted trees would have grown along the coast.
This vegetate period peaked during the middle Miocene , when atmospheric carbon paper dioxide levels were around 400 to 600 percentage per million . ( Today , driven by fogy fuel use , atmospheric carbon dioxide has climbed to 393 persona per million . )
As a final result , global temperatures warmed .
Antarctica stick to suit . During this period of time , summer temperature on the continent were 20 degrees Fahrenheit ( 11 degrees Celsius ) warm than today , researcher report June 17 in the journal Nature Geoscience .
An artist’s interpretation of what middle Miocene Antarctica might have looked like. Shrubs and even stunted trees would have grown along the coast.
" When the planet heat up , the expectant changes are encounter toward the poles , " written report investigator Jung - Eun Lee , a scientist atNASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , said in a statement . " The southbound movement of rainwater bands made the margins of Antarctica less like a polar desert and more like present - day Iceland . " [ methamphetamine universe : Amazing glacier ]
NASA research worker , along with scientists from the University of Southern California and Louisiana State University , analyzed recollective cores of sediment from below Antarctica ’s Ross Ice Shelf . Within the deposit , they found plant - leaf wax , an indication of ancient botany . The core also contained pollen and alga .
An depth psychology of the foliage wax provided a record of the water hold up by the plant when they lived . research worker could then track variation in the H molecules in the water , called isotopes . Because isotope vary over time and over certain environmental conditions , these variations allowed the researchers to retrace what the mood would have looked like when this water supply fell as rain .
A pollen grain from modern-day southern beech trees that grow in New Zealand. Ancient Antarctica would have hosted similar trees.
If current carbon emissions continue as they are , atmospherical carbon is ready to reach in-between Miocene levels by the conclusion of the C . The northern Antarctic Peninsula has already warmed by 4.5 degree F ( 2.5 level C ) over the last 50 years , and satellite viewsreveal melting chalk shelves .
The ancient south-polar sediment could provide a vision of what is to occur , said discipline leader Sarah Feakins , an earthly concern scientist at the University of Southern California .
" Just as history has a lot to learn us about the futurity , so does retiring climate , " Feakins say in a argument . " What this track record point us is how much warmer and surfactant it can get around the Antarctic ice rag as the climate system heats up . "
