Plants on ice
The coldest, driest, windiest continent on Earth – Antarctica – seems an unlikely place to find plants. But they’re there – you just might not recognise them when you see them.
The Antarctic peninsula has a different climate from the continent itself – it’s warmer and it rains sometimes – and it’s here that you will find flowering plants: two species of grass.
Deschampsia antarctica
Deschampsia antarctica is one of the grass species found on Antarctica’s peninsula. There are far more plant species on the Antarctic peninsula than the mainland, with the larger number of species at the peninsula’s northern end.
The rest of Antarctica is covered by a huge mantle of ice, apart from exposed rocky areas near the Ross Sea that make up about 0.4 percent of the total land area. This is where you can find a surprisingly large number of plant species – mosses, algae and lichens.
Species distribution
The distribution of plant species has been of interest to scientists for decades. The Latitudinal Gradient Project operated between 2002–2011. The international research project looked at changes in species numbers as you go further south, and which environmental factors affect plant distribution. Some of the scientists also investigated whether the plants have special adaptations allowing them to survive in Antarctica’s extreme conditions – as part of this, they sent lichens into space with a Russian unmanned flight in 2005! (The lichens survived.)
Fast forward a couple of decades and terrestrial biodiversity is still in the spotlight. Mosses are habitat-building species. Freshwater can be scarce, so microorganisms live on the thin films of water on the plants. Mosses also act as sentinel species – organisms that are monitored to provide early warning of potential health or environmental harm. Antarctica New Zealand has helped to create a species distribution model of 28 moss species across the Antarctic continent. The data gives us a better understanding of terrestrial ecosystems and potential impacts due to climate change.
There are more than 400 described species of lichens and approximately 100 species of moss in Antarctica. The number of species and the species themselves differ from site to site. The number of species on the mainland is lower than on the peninsula and the coastal islands.
Moss patch
Canada Glacier moss patch – the richest in the Dry Valleys. Some scientists are investigating whether plants have special adaptations allowing them to survive in Antarctica’s extreme conditions.
How do these organisms survive the freezing Antarctic conditions? This has been the focus of ongoing research by Allan Green and his international collaborators. They’ve found that, during the winter, the plants dehydrate and enter a state of dormancy. When temperatures improve and when water is available, they rehydrate and are able to photosynthesise – something that may be possible for only a few days in the year.
Related content
Lichens and mosses are Antarctic life forms that also photosynthesise. Read more in Life in the freezer.
In Antarctic life – microalgae, meet a team of researchers investigating the phytoplankton that live on the bottom of the ice and among the sloshy platelet ice layer just below it.
In the Connected article Catch my drift, students learn about phytoplankton – tiny floating organisms that form the base of the marine food web. The article looks at two types of phytoplankton – dinoflagellates and diatoms.
Further explore life in Antarctica further with these articles:
Activity ideas
In the activity Animal and plant adaptations, students learn about animal and plant adaptations in Antarctic species and use these ideas to design their own unique animal or plant.
The activity Build a marine food web looks at marine food webs in temperate waters, and Making a food web is specific to Antarctica.
The teacher resource Antarctica – literacy learning links, lists selected articles from the Connected and School Journal reading series that support the science concepts when teaching about Antarctica.
