Who is bringing weeds into Antarctica? A new study looking at the weed seeds brought into Antarctica over a one year period by tourists and scientists has found that unless quarantine is greatly improved it will be hard to stop an invasion by cold-climate loving weeds. The study found that each visitor brought on average 9 weed seeds into the continent. Of the 31,000 visitors and 7,100 scientists visiting, by far the largest risk of weed introduction was from science programs and tourist support personnel, with tourists bringing in less than half the number per person. The most common sources of weeds were boots (44% sampled had weed seeds) and backpacks (34% had weed seeds). About half of all weed species introduced had the ability to prosper in the ice-free areas. The study goes on to predict the areas at greatest threat from weeds over the next 100 years as the ice-free areas of Antarctica enlarge with global warming.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 02:35:52 +0000
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