Life in a cold environment - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 208

Figure 6.28 Vehicle tracks over wet

ground on King George Island damage the
moss patches and may persist for many
years. (Credit: Peter Convey, BAS)

Figure 6.29 Grazing exclosure on

South Georgia showing the extent of
regeneration once the reindeer are ex-
cluded, although the species diversity is
often permanently changed. (Credit: Peter
Convey, BAS)

terrestrial habitats, as do other local changes such as the exhaustion of a snow bank.
In the sea, changes in patterns of ice cover, formation and loss, all have potentially
wide ranging consequences for biota. Finally, the impact of ozone hole-related
increases in harmful short-wave UV-B radiation is often mistakenly confused with
global warming processes. This anthropogenic in uence on Antarctic ecosystems,

catalysed inadvertently by the release of aerosol propellants and refrigerant gases
into the atmosphere, has existed since the early 1980s.

Biological consequences of environmental change

At high latitude sites with very restricted thermal energy budgets, or in thermally very
stable environments, the relative importance of a small temperature increment will be
greater. On land, the main consequences of warming will be to increase the length of
the growing season, giving increased growth, reproduction and population sizes. In
contrast, in the sea, it has been suggested that major components of marine