Ecosystems
Arctic Tundra
Polar and Antarctic
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The circumpolar ecosystem north of the treeline across Arctic Russia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Scandinavia, underlain by permafrost and covered by dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses, mosses and lichens rather than trees. Reindeer and caribou, musk oxen, Arctic foxes, snowy owls and polar bears depend on a short growing season in which blueberry, crowberry and reindeer lichen dominate the ground cover. The permafrost beneath the tundra stores enormous quantities of carbon, and its thawing under a warming climate threatens to release that carbon in a feedback cycle that could change which species the ecosystem can support within decades.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
Tundra: Arctic (Wikipedia)
WikipediaRelationship to climate change sectionQuote, Relationship to climate change section
A severe threat to tundra is climate change, which causes permafrost to thaw. The thawing of the permafrost in a given area on human time scales (decades or centuries) could radically change which species can survive there.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
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