Chile's distant paradise where scientists study climate change
Hidden inside pristine forests in Chile's deep south, known as the end of the world, lie potential early warning signs of climate change.
Puerto Williams on Navarino island, which is separated from the South American mainland by the Beagle Channel, is the world's southern-most town.
Far from the pollution that blights major urban and industrial centers, it is a paradise that provides unique conditions to study global warming.
"There is nowhere else like it," Ricardo Rozzi, director of the Cape Horn International Center for global change studies and bio-cultural conservation in Puerto Williams, told AFP.
It is "a place that is especially sensitive to climate change" as average temperatures do not rise above five degrees Celsius.
This cold and windy area is the last inhabited southern frontier before reaching the Antarctic.
The ethnobotanical Omora park is home to an immense variety of lichens, mosses and fungi that scientists study by crouching down onto their knees with magnifying glasses.
In the crystal clear Robalo river, minuscule organisms act as sentinels of the changes produced by global warming.
In both the park and river, the alarm bells are ringing.
Moss and lichen on the move
At this latitude—55 degrees south—climate change has an exponential effect on flora that react by seeking out low temperatures, said Rozzi, 61.
Scientists study moss, lichen and fungi at the Omora Etnobotanical Park in Puerto Williams in order to observe the effects of climate change.