What is the worst thing about living on the Alaskan tundra?
Climate change is already having a dramatic effect on plants in the High Arctic, turning the once rocky tundra a deep shade of green and creating what could be another mechanism speeding up global warming. In a new study to be published in the November issue of the journal Ecology, University of British Columbia geographer Greg Henry has, for the first time, confirmed that rapidly rising temperatures in the Arctic are creating major changes in the plants that live there. “It’s happening so quickly,” says Henry. Henry first came to Alexandra Fiord on the east coast of Ellesmere Island in the 1980s to examine plants growing there. He found a harsh landscape covered with tiny Arctic willows, heather, dryas and blueberries, none taller than 10 centimetres. Since those days, the average temperature in the area has increased by about 2.5 C – “an extremely rapid change,” says Henry. Those warmer temperatures are making a difference. Henry says the total amount of plant material above the grou
