Greenland is turning green. The ice sheets and glaciers on the world’s largest island are melting, leading to the growth of vegetation. A new study shows large areas where ice used to be, now have shrubs, wetlands, or barren rock for the first time since the Vikings visited 1,000 years ago. A team of scientists from the University of Leeds attribute the conditions to warmer air temperatures, which have been heating up at twice the global average.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Ice and snow reflect the sun’s energy keeping Earth cooler, but as temperatures rise, the melting exposes bedrock that absorbs energy. The bare places are then colonized by tundra or treeless ecosystems and eventually shrublands. The melting ice also moves sediment and silt to form wetlands that can release the potent greenhouse gas methane as microbes feed on organic material.
Over a 30-year period, the amount of land with vegetation in Greenland doubled by more than 33,000 square miles, which in addition to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, will contribute to shifting landscapes and sea level rise.
The scientists also say that permafrost, which is a frozen layer beneath Earth’s surface, is being degraded and could affect communities, buildings, and infrastructure.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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