Revealing past climates from Antarctic moss
January 2025 – February 2025
Antarctic mosses are experiencing changes in health across the continent. The SAEF team has shown that the moss beds in the Windmill Islands near Casey Station are drying out due to windier weather caused by ozone depletion and climate change. This summer, the team is seeking to understand how the moss on the Antarctic Peninsula is faring.
A team of four SAEF scientists from the University of Wollongong and the University of Santiago will collect moss samples and environmental data from the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands to better understand how moss health is faring according to environmental factors such as water availability and temperature. The team will collect “moss cores,” which, like an ice or tree core, can tell us how old the mosses are and provide insights into past climate and environmental conditions.
These tiny windows into the past can be used as early and reliable indicators of how ecosystems in Antarctica are being affected by climate change. This will help the team identify which moss sites are most at risk from changing climates and inform conservation strategies for their protection.
