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The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth. The continent is also extremely dry (it is a desert [ 1 ] ), averaging 166 mm (6.5 in) of precipitation per year. Snow rarely melts on most parts of the continent, and, after being compressed, becomes the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet .
The continent of Antarctica itself has been too cold and dry to support any other vascular plants for millions of years. The scanty vegetation of Antarctica is a result of the chilling temperature, lack of sunlight, little rainfall, relatively poor soil quality , and a lack of moisture due to the inability of the plants to absorb water in the ...
Pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change pose great risks to the environment. The Antarctic Treaty System is a global treaty designed to preserve Antarctica as a place of research, and measures from this system are used to regulate human activity in Antarctica.
Parts of icy Antarctica are turning green with plant life as the region is gripped by extreme heat events, new research shows, sparking concerns about the changing landscape on this vast continent.
A portion of the world's iciest, coldest continent is "greening" at a dramatic rate because of global warming, scientists announced in a recent study.In fact, the research showed that vegetation ...
The climate of present-day Antarctica does not allow extensive vegetation to form. [127] A combination of freezing temperatures, poor soil quality , and a lack of moisture and sunlight inhibit plant growth, causing low species diversity and limited distribution.
These islands have a somewhat milder climate than Antarctica proper, and support a greater diversity of tundra plants, although they are all too windy and cold to support trees. Antarctic krill is the keystone species of the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean , and is an important food organism for whales , seals , leopard seals , fur seals ...
Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis) are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, including offshore islands, where the climate is relatively mild. Lagotellerie Island in Marguerite Bay is an example of this habitat.