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Growth rates of Antarctic mosses derived from radiocarbon
Bomb radiocarbon has been used for the determination of growth rates of four moss species collected from Vestfold Hills and Windmill Islands in East Antarctica.
| Antarctic Moss |
The 14C profile in moss cores showed both the rising and falling limbs of bomb radiocarbon, implying that these mosses began growing more than 50 years ago. The results indicated that these Antarctic mosses have grown slowly with average rates ranging from 0.6 to 1.3 mm yr-1.
This study is the first to determine the growth rates of Antarctic mosses over a time period spanning decades rather than individual or multiple field seasons. The results also give the researchers an opportunity to investigate whether temporal variations in moss growth rates correlate with climatic change in Antarctica.
Project Support
AINSE Grants 04/068, 05/142P , 06/155 & PGRA#AINSTU2110. Australian Antarctic Science projects #2542 & 4046. ARC DP110101714.
Project team members
Laurence Clarke (School of Biological Sciences, Flinders Univ.), David Fink (ANSTO), Quan Hua (ANSTO) , Sharon Robinson (Institute for Conservation Biology, Univ. Wollongong) and Melinda Waterman (Institute for Conservation Biology, Univ. Wollongong).
Publications related to this project
Clarke, L.J., S.A. Robinson, Q. Hua, D.J. Ayre, and D. Fink (2012), 14C bomb spike reveals biological effects of Antarctic climate change, Global Change Biology, 18, 301-310.
Hua, Q. (2009), Radiocarbon: A chronological tool for the recent past, Quaternary Geochronology, 4, 378-390. doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2009.03.006.
Abstracts related to this project
Waterman, M., Q. Hua, P. Keller, S. Robinson, Ceratodon purpureus: Cell wall sunscreens, radiocarbon dating, and life of an Antarctic moss under an elevated UV climate. The 97th Ecological Society of America Annual Conference, 5-10 Aug 2012, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Robinson, S.A., L.J. Clarke, M. Waterman, J. Bramley-Alves, Q. Hua, W. Wanek, and D. Fink, Radiocarbon bomb spike reveals climate change is stunting growth of century old Antarctic moss shoots, The 5th SCAR Open Science Conference, 16-19 Jul 2012, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Robinson, S.A., J. Wasley, L.J. Clarke, M. Waterman, D. King, J. Bramley-Alves, Q. Hua, W. Wanek, No place to hide, plants surviving the climate of Antarctica, The Society for Experimental Biology Symposium, 29 Jun – 2 Jul 2012, Salzburg, Austria.
Robinson, S.A., L.J. Clarke, D. King, D.J. Ayre, Q. Hua, D. Fink, and A. Lucieer, Monitoring impacts of a changing climate on plant communities of Continental Antarctica, British Ecological Society Annual Meeting 2010, 7-9 Sep 2010, University of Leeds, UK.
Clarke, L.J., S.A. Robinson, D.J. Ayre, Q. Hua, and D. Fink, Impacts of a changing climate on growth rates of Antarctic mosses, the American Society of Plant Biologists Meeting – Plant Biology 2010, 31 Jul – 4 Aug 2010, Montreal, Canada.
Fink, D., Q. Hua, L.J. Clarke and S.A. Robinson, Growth rate of Antarctic mosses derived from bomb radiocarbon, The 20th International Radiocarbon Conference, 31 May 5 Jun 2009, Hawaii, USA.
Robinson, S.A., L.J. Clarke, Q. Hua, and D. Fink, The influence of environment on the growth rate of East Antarctic mosses since the 1950s, Joint SCAR-IASC Open Science Conference, 8-11 Jul 2008, St Petersburg, Russia.
Clarke, L.J., S.A. Robinson, Q. Hua, D. Fink, Watching moss grow: Radiocarbon reveals growth rate of Antarctic mosses, The 2nd SCAR Open Science Conference, 12-14 Jul 2006, Hobart, Australia.
Hua, Q., Recent 14C as a chronological tool, OZPACs 2nd Meeting, 20-21 April 2006, Canberra, Australia.
Clarke, L.J., S.A. Robinson, Q. Hua, D. Fink, Watching moss grow: Bomb radiocarbon reveals growth rate of Antarctic mosses, The 19th International Radiocarbon Conference, 3-7 Apr 2006, Oxford, UK.