News Climate

Antarctic plants may face a growing fungal threat from warming soils

Under high-emissions scenarios, the fungi could roughly double in the region by 2100

A photograph of snow-covered Antarctica, which faces a growing fungal threat from a plant-pathogenic fungus, shown in an inset image.

Most of Antarctica is blanketed in snow and ice. Warming weather will melt some of the ice, opening up more land to plant life — and to pathogenic fungi such as Microdochium nivale (inset) in the soil that can damage those plants.

Inset: Mushroom Observer Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0); Jason Auch/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

By Carolyn Gramling

Global warming will expand the tiny Antarctic plant community.