GEOG5 ALASKAN TUNDRA BIOME: 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