The Antarctic air was finger-numbing when we boarded the Zodiac in Chiriguano Bay on the south side of Brabant Island—part of an archipelago that sits along the northern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. I joined staff scientists to collect samples of phytoplankton for testing. Phytoplankton are responsible “for every second breath of oxygen we take,” said Meghan Goggins, chief scientist on the Viking Polaris. As far as carbon sinks go, she said, phytoplankton get far less attention than forests, and carbon sinks are important for fighting climate change.

When time permits during an itinerary, Polaris’s scientists do what they can to get samples and data. More eyes are always needed on Antarctica, especially around its peninsula, which is seeing dramatic changes. During the Antarctic spring and summer (October to March), the peninsula warms and snow melts, which exposes land and allows fresh mosses and grasses to appear. As a recent study in Nature shows, however, climate change and its increasing temperatures are helping that green-up to expand.

When someone thinks of Antarctica, they are likely thinking of a stunning world of pure white snow and frosted blue icebergs—and penguins, of course. Tom P. Roland, one of the study’s lead authors and a senior lecturer in physical geography at the University of Exeter, said, “Those things are important, don’t get me wrong. But what we’re trying to do is think about what comes beyond that point,” as far out as 300 years from now. What happens when it is no longer as white?

Gentoo penguins on Danco Island, Antarctica. | Photo by Brandon Withrow

Melting exposes the Damoy Hut in Dorian Bay, Antarctica. | Photo by Brandon Withrow

Antarctica experienced an unprecedented heat wave last year, with temperatures 50 degrees above normal. This kind of shift matches the pattern seen globally, as several months in a row passed the 1.5°C mark climate scientists have warned about. This warming means change everywhere.

When I arrived in November, many of our landing points were islands near the study sites. Everything was still white, but the ice was opening up for ships to make it through. Snow and ice around the shores were receding, making it accessible for landings. But in the distant future, Antarctic adventurers might find themselves visiting greener places, serving as memorials to its more frozen days.

“The mosses on the peninsula can grow in a number of different ways,” said Roland, as “some of the systems grow vertically, and some of them tend to grow more laterally.” It was the vertical growth that they first studied. “As they grew,” he added, “they were locking up environmental information and climatic information over time” (about 5,000 years).

From core samples, Roland and team looked at microorganisms fossilized in moss banks and dated them using radiocarbon dating as well as the chemistry of moss banks, and they were able to reconstruct past changes in the climate and environment. The team discovered that since about the 1950s, the vertical growth rate has far exceeded anything from the previous 5,000 years.

But more than that, it has also been growing horizontally. “I don’t particularly like playing in the mud,” joked Olly Bartlett, a senior lecturer in remote sensing and geography at the University of Hertfordshire, “but that’s where flying a drone comes in handy.” In this case, Bartlett used satellite data to get a bigger picture of how horizontal mosses were spreading. “Healthy plants,” said Bartlett, “reflect a lot of near-infrared light, and they use a lot of red light for photosynthesis or energy creation. When satellites measure that color, you can start to see where vegetation is from space.”

Vegetation coverage went from just under one square kilometer to approximately 12 square kilometers by 2021. It’s a discovery that Bartlett said couldn’t have been known without satellite data. “When we first ran the numbers, we were surprised by the magnitude of the greening trend,” added Roland, “to the point where we had to run it several times to really believe it. And we checked everything, and the peer reviewers checked everything, and we checked everything again.”

Climate change is leading to a compounding effect. A warming planet helps vegetation thrive. That vegetation breaks down and composts over time, creating new soil build-up and more area for more plants to thrive later. “If we needed any more canaries in the coal mine, this is the last one,” said Roland.

One morning, Viking’s Zodiacs dropped us off near a penguin colony in Mikkelsen Harbor. Choruses of penguin calls filled the heavy, cold air, and the colony had coated the hills in a slurry mix of melting snow and chocolate brown penguin guano. There was a pungent, fishy scent wafting our way from those piles of penguin poop. The excrement has a bigger purpose, though, helping to melt the snow, which clears the ground for nesting purposes. According to the study, this might also be providing nitrogen that enriches the soil and composting vegetation as they increase over time. This makes the land more receptive to spreading moss and new plants colonizing the area.

A study site at Ardley Island. | Photo by Dan J. Charman

Anyone visiting Antarctica also has the potential to change the landscape, so expedition ships like Polaris follow strict protocols from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, which include restricting where guests can wander. Before I could leave Polaris, I had to follow their biosecurity measures, like vacuuming dirt and seeds out of my clothing and backpack as well as using biosecurity sprays for killing any seeds hanging on when leaving and returning to the ship.

But it’s not just humans that could transplant new vegetation. Birds carry seeds on their feet and haphazardly transplant them elsewhere. Studies have also documented evidence of invasive and colonizing species that have hitched rides onto kelp, debris, and human garbage, reaching as far as the sub-Antarctic. As the waters warm and the ice recedes, barriers to entry on the continent itself will be lost.

Without more eyes on the region, important changes and warning signs could be missed. Both Roland and Bartlett see having feet on the ground in Antarctica as necessary, saying they would take any leg up they could get, and were even considering hitching a ride on any ships of opportunity that would take them. Securing government funding, they said, takes years and that is time that is lost. Even if they only have a day here and there, they emphasized, that would be significant.

“This place that we think of as being isolated ... even this sort of last bastion of wilderness is being affected by anthropogenic climate change,” said Roland.