Climate change is causing some really strange occurrences on our planet. From the increase in speed and intensity of cyclones to the slow rising of sea level.?
However, new research reveals that ice-clad sections of coastal areas of Antarctica have turned green, and some other shades of orange and red.
Already global warming was causing the most severe heatwave ever recorded in Antarctica, but now it's leading to some really weird ice melting behaviour that's frankly unprecedented.
This is according to a study published in Nature Communications, where a team of scientists looked at green snow on the Antarctic peninsula for the very first time.?
They took the help of satellite imagery from European Space Agency captured between the year 2017 and 2019 and fused them all together with their discoveries in a trip to Antarctica¡¯s Ruder bay, Adeliade island as well as the Fildes Peninsula and King George Island.
Matt Davey a professor at the University of Cambridge¡¯s Department of Plant Sciences said in a conversation with Gizmodo Earther, ¡°We identified 1,679 separate blooms of green algae on the snow surface. We focused on the green blooms as these were the most visible from space.¡±
As temperatures got warmer than normal, algae spores started germinating on the Antarctic surface which is entirely snow. In fact, these were visible even from space. Along with green algae, researchers also saw snow turning into colours like red and orange.?
All these blooms were mostly spotted around the snow on the Antarctic coastline -- this has also become the fastest-warming part of the continent due to climate change.?
Research reveals that most of the algae concentration occurs in areas where wildlife is commonly seen as animal faeces help algae to thrive. They found 60 percent of teh blooms near penguin colonies.?
While researchers don¡¯t really know the effects of the green show, there are some benefits from it. It helps in sucking carbon out of the atmosphere -- as much as a car driving a million miles would create. Sadly, comparing it to the CO2 present in the atmosphere already, the impact is minuscule.
Davey further stated, ¡°I would say that the blooms are certainly not enough to help get rid of the excess carbon dioxide from human-caused emissions.¡±?
There is one apparent danger to this. A few months ago when green patches started emerging in snow-clad regions of Greenland, they found it to increase the absorption of sunlight, causing faster meltdown of ice, which basically means quicker sea level rise and that¡¯s clearly not a good thing.