Global Waring: 400-year-old plants re-surface with glacial melting







What may seem directly out of a science-fiction movie, plants which were buried under ice 4 centuries ago, resurrected as glacier melted due to global warming. These mosses, which remained buried under ice for a long time, are growing again.

Dr. Catherine La Farge and her colleagues from the University of Alberta discovered around 60 to 144 different species of moss in Greenland. These mosses have been growing at a brisk rate after they have been resurrected.

Ice sheets have been melting around the world. In the Arctic region, the meltdown has been fast and it has unearthed many species of plants which were buried under thick layers of ice. Scientists from around the world have been studies these plants, including these mosses which were discovered recently.

An article published in Alaska Disptach explains the nature of such meltdown in Greenland and tells us what the meltdown has unearthed in that region.

“Glaciers on Ellesmere Island, off the coast of Greenland, are rapidly retreating, like most glaciers around the world. As they pull back, they are uncovering whole ecosystems of mosses that are starting to wake up and blink in the sunlight.”

According to carbon dating, these plants froze anytime between 1398 to 1609 when a ‘Little Ice Age’ froze large parts of Europe. The researchers placed these collected mosses with potting soil under a lamp and in 6 weeks, the mosses started to grow again.

The article in Alaska Disptach also explains how this could be possible.

"Moss has a big advantage helping its resuscitation along: its cells can replicate themselves and grow into anything the plant needs. Mosses are essentially built of stem cells, cloning themselves endlessly, without stamens, pistils, or any of the other trappings of sexual reproduction.”

The discovery of these resurrecting mosses raises few interesting questions and scientists would like to know if such mosses can be used to revive dying ecosystems in our planet. 


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