Title |
Climate change drives expansion of Antarctic ice-free habitat
|
---|---|
Published in |
Nature, June 2017
|
DOI | 10.1038/nature22996 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Jasmine R. Lee, Ben Raymond, Thomas J. Bracegirdle, Iadine Chadès, Richard A. Fuller, Justine D. Shaw, Aleks Terauds |
Abstract |
Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity occurs almost exclusively in ice-free areas that cover less than 1% of the continent. Climate change will alter the extent and configuration of ice-free areas, yet the distribution and severity of these effects remain unclear. Here we quantify the impact of twenty-first century climate change on ice-free areas under two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate forcing scenarios using temperature-index melt modelling. Under the strongest forcing scenario, ice-free areas could expand by over 17,000 km(2) by the end of the century, close to a 25% increase. Most of this expansion will occur in the Antarctic Peninsula, where a threefold increase in ice-free area could drastically change the availability and connectivity of biodiversity habitat. Isolated ice-free areas will coalesce, and while the effects on biodiversity are uncertain, we hypothesize that they could eventually lead to increasing regional-scale biotic homogenization, the extinction of less-competitive species and the spread of invasive species. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Australia | 47 | 12% |
United States | 29 | 7% |
Mexico | 22 | 6% |
United Kingdom | 19 | 5% |
Spain | 15 | 4% |
Chile | 11 | 3% |
New Zealand | 8 | 2% |
Canada | 6 | 2% |
Colombia | 6 | 2% |
Other | 80 | 20% |
Unknown | 151 | 38% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 314 | 80% |
Scientists | 66 | 17% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 11 | 3% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 3 | <1% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Switzerland | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 382 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 70 | 18% |
Researcher | 65 | 17% |
Student > Master | 47 | 12% |
Student > Bachelor | 46 | 12% |
Other | 17 | 4% |
Other | 59 | 15% |
Unknown | 79 | 21% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 78 | 20% |
Environmental Science | 76 | 20% |
Earth and Planetary Sciences | 58 | 15% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 23 | 6% |
Social Sciences | 11 | 3% |
Other | 38 | 10% |
Unknown | 99 | 26% |