Webb Island, AntarcticaVINCENT VAN ZEIJST, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest place in the world, and is often considered the most isolated and pristine. But now, because of human impacts, the Earth’s southernmost continent is rapidly changing—not least of all due to the alien species humans are unintentionally introducing, according to a study published today (March 5) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Visitors carry tens of thousands of seeds into the Antarctic each year on their clothing and in their bags, researchers found, and more than half the seeds belong to cold-adapted species capable of surviving the continent’s icy conditions. And as the climate continues to warm, more regions of the continent become habitable to these intruders, they concluded.
“A risk assessment such as this one ...
