Alien invaders threaten Antarctic fringes
Researchers scoured the clothes and boots of tourists and scientists visiting the continent and found that most were carrying plant seeds.
Alien plants already grow on the fast-warming Antarctic Peninsula.
During International Polar Year in 2007-08, the research team took samples from tourists and tourism operators, and scientists and their support staff.
On average, each visitor carried 9.5 seeds into the White Continent, though scientists carried far more each than tourists.
One complicating factor for the Antarctic Peninsula and its islands is that some seeds are known to arrive carried on the wind from South America.
I wondered when "it" would pop-up (greenhouse-man-made-warming-of-the-global-earth-stupidity ...)
Scroll waaaaaay down in the article :
But, argues Prof Chown, there is still an element of human agency about these wind-blown cases in that the plants can only establish themselves under climatic conditions created largely through humanity's production of greenhouse gases.
Posted: 8:30:03 AM
|