Work Cited

Works Cited 

"Alaska-St. Elias Range." Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1101>.

"Beringia Lowland Tundra." Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1106>.

"Beringia Upland Tundra." Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1107>.

"Tundra and Permafrost." Ice Stories Dispatches from Polar Scientists. N.p., 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/tundra-and-permafrost/>.

"The Tundra Biome." Marietta College Department of Biology and Environmental Science's Biomes of the World. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/tundra.htm>.

"The Tundra Biome." University of California Museum of Paleontology: The World's Biomes. N.p., Apr. 2004. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/tundra.html>.

"Tundra Threats." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/tundra-threats.html>.

"Tundra." Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://worldwildlife.org/biomes/tundra>.

Welle, Marlies E.W., Peter J. Vermeulen, Gaius R. Shaver, and Frank Berendse. "Factors Determining Plant Species Richness in Alaskan Arctic Tundra." Journal of Vegetation Science 14.5 (2003): 711-20. Print.

*Please refer to this page for this blogs sources.

Improvements/Solutions

Many actions can be taken to stop these negative impacts on the Alaskan tundra and prevent the status from getting worse. The most important action that should take place is for us, as humans, to switch to alternative energy and limit our exhaust of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Any little change in our lifestyles to decrease global warming would lead to the decrease in the amount of permafrost that would melt. To restrict human influence from spreading to well-established habitats, protected areas and park reserves should be set up. Along with establishing such areas, continual management of these areas should be enforced. Since mining, road construction, and pipeline installments have threatened the ecosystem, there should also be a limit on these developments in the area. If some or all these solutions take effect, then the Alaskan tundra surely will stay fairly intact and stable, as it is now.

Alaskan tundra, http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=tundra.main

*The above consists of information obtained from the following sources: 

Tundra Threats, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/tundra-threats.html

Future Prospects

Alaska's North Slope tundra, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/tundra-landscapes/#/north-slope-tundra_312_600x450.jpg

Since the tundra ecosystem is relatively stable, there is not a large expectancy for drastic and dire change. In the northern part of the Beringia lowland tundra, there is a bigger threat for it to become even more fragmented in the future. The lowlands also have “some potential for unsustainable waterfowl harvests from local communities” (Beringia Lowland Tundra). Parallel to the lowland’s northern part, the Seward Peninsula area of the Beringia uplands is also become “increasingly roaded and developed” (Beringia Upland Tundra). The population of harvested species, especially the Kilbuck caribou and walruses, has potential to decrease more and more over the years. Also, if humans keep living the way we’ve been living, there is potential for the biome to “radically change [in] landscape and what species are able to live there” (Tundra Threats). 

*The above consists of information obtained from the following sources: 

Beringia Lowland Tundra, http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1106

Beringia Upland Tundra, http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1107

Tundra Threats, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/tundra-threats.html,

Current Human Impacts

Compared to many of the other biomes that cover the world, the tundra is relatively intact and less affected by human impact. This is due to the fact that the ecosystem is low in human population. For many people, living in the tundra is neither convenient nor favorable. The lack of trees, cold weather, and difficulty of building on permafrost limit the amount of settlements to arise. Settlements are highly scattered and at very small amounts. When humans do populate the area, marine life can become threatened as well as the terrestrial animals that feed on the sea’s fish from commercial fishing.

Instead, the main threats of human impact that the tundra faces involve mining and road development along with the effects of global warming. The minerals found in these mines include “gold, silver, lead, copper, coal, uranium, and molybdenum” (Alaska-St. Elias Range) along with oil and gas. The number of mines and roads in the Alaskan tundra are increasing and these interruptions to the ecosystem are “increasingly fragmenting and altering the tundra habitat” enough to potentially “interrupt mammal movements and migrations, and to result in severe local degradation of the delicate tundra habitats” (Beringia Upland Tundra). 

major erosion due to melting of permafrost, http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/tundra-and-permafrost/

One of the most major concerns for the tundra ecosystem is the effects of global warming. Although indirectly related, humans’ role in air pollution and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere has caused the Earth’s temperature to rise and allowed more UV rays to enter the atmosphere. This, in turn, melts the permafrost, not only destroying the tundra’s defining feature, but also allowing carbon dioxide that is trapped under the layers of permafrost to be released into the atmosphere and causing sea levels to rise. In fact, according to National Geographic’s article entitled Tundra Threats, “one-third of the world's soil-bound carbon is in tundra permafrost” (Tundra Threats).

melting permafrost, http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/melting-permafrost-part-3/

melting permafrost from above, http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/tundra-and-permafrost/

Table: Effects of Human Impact of the Tundra

	Permafrost	Animal/Plant Life	Landscape
Human Population	Buildings cause the soil to become mush	Can interrupt animal movement and migration	Building on the landscape changes the structure and creates different communities
Mining	Damages the permafrost with the development of roads	May occupy areas that were previously habitats	Development and construction causes landscape to become deformed
Climate Change	Melting the permafrost; releasing gases	Can cause certain adapted plants to die out	Changes the vegetation and soil; rising sea levels

*The above consists of information obtained from the following sources:

The Tundra Biome, http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/tundra.htm

Tundra Threats, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/tundra-threats.html

Tundra and Permafrost, http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/tundra-and-permafrost/

Alaskan-St. Elias Range, http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1101

Tundra and Permafrost, http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/big-ideas/tundra-and-permafrost/

Beringia Upland Tundra, http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na1107

Factors Determining Plant Species Richness in Alaskan Arctic Tundra, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3236947?seq=2&Search=yes&searchText=alaskan&searchText=tundra&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dalaskan%2Btundra%26fromHomePage%3Dtrue%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&item=2&ttl=4879&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null