"Lunar Moss"
Kate Mullany, Honours Student

Much like the Moon, the Windmill Islands region, a freezing winter desert in East Antarctica is not the most welcoming place on earth. However, populations of Schistidium antarctici still call it home and this photograph shows magnified leaves plucked from this small plant. As the only endemic Antarctic moss species, observed changes in the distribution of Schistidium antarctici since 1996 have inspired much scientific research and may indicate that this sensitive, slow growing species to be one of the first Antarctic fatalities of climate change.