respond

  In the peer review article, the main author, Matthew J. Amesbury, explains how due to global warming, scientists are seeing increases in moss growth in the Antarctic. Scientists are studying these growth increases and how moss reacts to heat so they can learn more about climate change and human’s effect on climate change.

          In the article from ABC Science, the author Bianca Nogrady pulls quotes from Dr. Amesbury to explain why the ever-growing moss is important. Nogrady explains, “The moss has been growing more and showing more microbial activity as the temperature increases, which means that if the temperatures in the area continue to warm, the Antarctic Peninsula is likely to get a lot greener” (ABC Science). Later in the article, Nogrady quotes Professor Sharon Robinson, who explains why above freezing temperatures are so dangerous to the Antarctic. Robinson tells, “As soon as you get above 0C, every day above 0C, every hour above 0C potentially means that there’s more water available for growth, and so that increases the season” (ABC Science). Even if a single day in the Antarctic is over freezing, that day still supplies the surrounding plants with a day’s worth of water to grow and spread with.

          Both articles show how rapidly moss has grown in the Antarctic since the 1950s. At the end of these two writings, the authors show that with increasing temperatures, moss growth will also increase, and what happens in the Antarctic will parallel what happens in the Arctic.

          Between the two articles, I prefer the one from ABC Science. This is because Nogrady was able to fully explain and summarize what the scientists in the Antarctic were doing with making it too complicated or too terse. Nogrady wrote in layman’s terms, and used direct quotes from the scientists to fully explain her points. I didn’t notice any biases in these articles. Rather, they were just written by concerned individuals who want to inform the masses about the effects of climate change in the coldest parts of the world.

Sources:

Amesbury, Matthew J. “Widespread Biological Response to Rapid Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula.” Current Biology, 2017,

www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30478-5#secsectitle0115.

Nogrady, Bianca. “Rapid Greening of Antarctic Peninsula Driven by Climate Change.” ABC News, ABC News, 18 May 2017,

www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-05-19/rapid-greening-of-antarctic-peninsula-drive–by-climate-change/8534368.

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