A satellite-derived baseline of photosynthetic life across Antarctica

Walshaw, Charlotte V.; Gray, Andrew; Fretwell, Peter T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1988-5844; Convey, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8497-9903; Davey, Matthew P.; Johnson, Joanne S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-4447; Colesie, Claudia. 2024 A satellite-derived baseline of photosynthetic life across Antarctica. Nature Geoscience, 2024. 16, pp. 10.1038/s41561-024-01492-4

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Official URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01492-4

Abstract/Summary

Terrestrial vegetation communities across Antarctica are characteristically sparse, presenting a challenge for mapping their occurrence using remote sensing at the continent scale. At present there is no continent-wide baseline record of Antarctic vegetation, and large-scale area estimates remain unquantified. With local vegetation distribution shifts now apparent and further predicted in response to environmental change across Antarctica, it is critical to establish a baseline to document these changes. Here we present a 10 m-resolution map of photosynthetic life in terrestrial and cryospheric habitats across the entire Antarctic continent, maritime archipelagos and islands south of 60° S. Using Sentinel-2 imagery (2017–2023) and spectral indices, we detected terrestrial green vegetation (vascular plants, bryophytes, green algae) and lichens across ice-free areas, and cryospheric green snow algae across coastal snowpacks. The detected vegetation occupies a total area of 44.2 km2, with over half contained in the South Shetland Islands, altogether contributing just 0.12% of the total ice-free area included in the analysis. Due to methodological constraints, dark-coloured lichens and cyanobacterial mats were excluded from the study. This vegetation map improves the geospatial data available for vegetation across Antarctica, and provides a tool for future conservation planning and large-scale biogeographic assessments.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/s41561-024-01492-4
ISSN:	1752-0894
Date made live:	07 Aug 2024 08:36 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/536526

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1038/s41561-024-01492-4

ISSN:

1752-0894

Date made live:

07 Aug 2024 08:36 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/536526