El Niño rains transformed Chile’s Atacama Desert into a spectacular sea of colors, awakening an ephemeral ecosystem of flowers and wildlife in one of the driest places on Earth.
Transcription
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
One of the driest places on Earth burst into color. Nearly 7,000 square miles of Chile’s Atacama Desert are covered in wildflowers after rains transformed the arid landscape. Scientists say these spectacular blooms could become more frequent as climate change makes weather conditions increasingly unpredictable in the region. John Bartlett reports.
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JOHN BARTLETT, BYLINE: Where once there was little more than rock, sand and dust, the landscape is now alive with color. Every few years, winter rains awaken dormant bulbs and seeds in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert on Earth, bringing a burst of color to its otherwise stark landscape. And this year, Chile’s National Forestry Corporation says the desert is experiencing its most spectacular bloom in nearly 30 years.
All around me there are islands of color, yellow trumpet-shaped flowers on long stems, purple saucers that stand out against the gray sand, and star-shaped sprays of flamboyant orange petals.
This winter, heavy rains associated with the El Niño cycle triggered flash floods in the Atacama Desert.
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BARTLETT: The flowers spread across Llanos de Challe National Park, a 113,000-acre preserve along Chile’s arid coast where white sand beaches meet the Pacific Ocean. Moises Grimberg is the park administrator.
MOISES GRIMBERG: (speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: “This year we had incredible winter rains – over 150 millimeters – something we haven’t seen since 1997,” he says.
There are over 200 species of flowers, some dormant under the sun for decades, waiting for rain.
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BARTLETT: Grimberg says the park typically attracts about 10,000 visitors a year. But the spectacular flowering made it possible to harvest 15,000 in just a few weeks.
GRIMBERG: (speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: “But for us, the beauty is in the whole cycle, not just the visible part, which is the flowering,” Grimberg tells me.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: Across the desert, scientists are racing to record the extraordinary diversity of life emerging from Earth before the brief blooming season ends.
On this hill, beetles run around my feet in the sand and the wind sings through the flowers. An entire ephemeral ecosystem forms around the desert flowering.
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BARTLETT: Biologists from the National Seed Bank of Chile collect specimens for analysis in their laboratory.
BRITT WALLBERG: (speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: “It’s very important to collect all this genetic diversity,” says Britt Wallberg, as we carefully move between patches of colorful flowers. Protecting genetic diversity means protecting the different characteristics that species need to survive in different environments.
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BARTLETT: A national park was created in 2023 to protect the 141,000 acres of desert where flowers return every few years. But local authorities want to go further.
MIGUEL VARGAS: (speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: Miguel Vargas is the governor of the Atacama region.
VARGAS: (speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: “Getting UNESCO recognition for this phenomenon will also give us the responsibility to deal with it,” he says. Ultimately, Vargas hopes to gain government support for the UNESCO bid, which could make Chile the eighth world heritage site.
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BARTLETT: This extraordinary and vibrant phenomenon is fleeting. This will only last a few more weeks. And in the coming months, once scientists analyze the data, we will know if this is indeed the most widespread bloom in almost 30 years and, interestingly, if they have discovered any previously unrecorded plant species in the area. For NPR News, I’m John Bartlett in Copiapó, Chile.
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