1.
Polar climate
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The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers. Every month in a polar climate has a temperature of less than 10 °C. Regions with polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth, the sun shines for long hours in the summer, and for many fewer hours in the winter. A polar climate results in treeless tundra, glaciers, or a permanent or semi-permanent layer of ice and it has cool summers and very cold winters. There are two types of climate, ET, or tundra climate, and EF, or ice cap climate. A tundra climate is characterized by having at least one month whose average temperature is above 0 °C, in a tundra climate, trees cannot grow, but other specialized plants can grow. In an ice cap climate, no plants can grow, many high altitude locations on Earth have a climate where no month has an average temperature of 10 °C or higher, but as this is due to elevation, this climate is referred to as Alpine climate. Alpine climate can mimic either tundra or ice cap climate, on Earth, the only continent where the ice cap polar climate is predominant is Antarctica. All but a few isolated areas on the island of Greenland also have the ice cap climate. Coastal regions of Greenland that do not have permanent ice sheets have the less extreme tundra climates, large areas in northern Canada and northern Alaska have tundra climate, changing to ice cap climate in the most northern parts of Canada. These subantarctic lowlands are found closer to the equator than the coastal tundras of the Arctic basin, some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice year-round, and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface. Average January temperatures range from about −40 to 0 °C, average July temperatures range from about −10 to 10 °C, with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 °C in summer. The Arctic consists of ocean that is surrounded by land. As such, the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water, in summer, the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise, just as it does in temperate regions with maritime climates. The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on the whole of Earth, Antarctica has the lowest temperature ever recorded, −89.2 °C at Vostok Station. It is also dry, averaging 166 millimetres of precipitation per year. Even so, on most parts of the continent the snow melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacial ice that makes up the ice sheet. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, there have been several attempts at quantifying what constitutes a polar climate
2.
Physical geography
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Physical geography is one of the two major sub-fields of geography. Geomorphology seeks to understand landform history and dynamics, and predict future changes through a combination of observation, physical experiment. Thus the field encompasses water in rivers, lakes, aquifers and to an extent glaciers, in which the field examines the process and dynamics involved in these bodies of water. Similar to most fields of physical geography it has sub-fields that examine the bodies of water or their interaction with other spheres e. g. limnology and ecohydrology. Glaciology is the study of glaciers and ice sheets, or more commonly the cryosphere or ice, glaciology groups the latter as continental glaciers and the former as alpine glaciers. Glaciology also has a vast array of sub-fields examining the factors and processes involved in ice sheets and glaciers e. g. snow hydrology, Biogeography is the science which deals with geographic patterns of species distribution and the processes that result in these patterns. The main stimulus for the field since its founding has been that of evolution, plate tectonics, climatology examines both the nature of micro and macro climates and the natural and anthropogenic influences on them. The field is also sub-divided largely into the climates of various regions, meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and short term forecasting. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century, meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology. Pedology is the study of soils in their natural environment and it is one of two main branches of soil science, the other being edaphology. Pedology mainly deals with pedogenesis, soil morphology, soil classification, palaeogeography is a cross-disciplinary study that examines the preserved material in the stratigraphic record to determine the distribution of the continents through geologic time. Almost all the evidence for the positions of the continents comes from geology in the form of fossils or paleomagnetism, the use of this data has resulted in evidence for continental drift, plate tectonics, and supercontinents. This, in turn, has supported palaeogeographic theories such as the Wilson cycle, coastal geography is the study of the dynamic interface between the ocean and the land, incorporating both the physical geography and the human geography of the coast. It involves an understanding of coastal weathering processes, particularly wave action, sediment movement and weathering, coastal geography, although predominantly geomorphological in its research, is not just concerned with coastal landforms, but also the causes and influences of sea level change. Oceanography is the branch of geography that studies the Earths oceans. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers blend to further knowledge of the world ocean, Quaternary science is an inter-disciplinary field of study focusing on the Quaternary period, which encompasses the last 2.6 million years. The field was founded by the German geographer Carl Troll. Landscape ecology typically deals with problems in an applied and holistic context, geomatics is the field of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering geographic information, or spatially referenced information
3.
Biome
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A biome /ˈbaɪoʊm/ is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in, and can be found over a range of continents. Spanning continents, biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate, biome is a broader term than habitat, any biome can comprise a variety of habitats. While a biome can cover large ares, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a space as well. For example, the microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses. The biotas of the Earth make up the biosphere, the term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, the International Biological Program projects popularized the concept of biome. However, in contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. Both includes many biomes in fact and their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them. A1978 study on North American grasslands found a positive correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge’s bioclassification scheme, Holdridge uses the four axes to define 30 so-called humidity provinces, which are clearly visible in his diagram. While this scheme largely ignores soil and sun exposure, Holdridge acknowledged that these were important and his scheme can be seen as a simplification of Holdridges, more readily accessible, but missing Holdridges greater specificity. Whittaker based his approach on theoretical assertions and empirical sampling and he was in a unique position to make such a holistic assertion because he had previously compiled a review of biome classifications. Physiognomy, the apparent characteristics, outward features, or appearance of communities or species. Biome, a grouping of terrestrial ecosystems on a continent that are similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, features of the environment. Formation, a kind of community of plants on a given continent. Biome-type, grouping of convergent biomes or formations of different continents, whittakers distinction between biome and formation can be simplified, formation is used when applied to plant communities only, while biome is used when concerned with both plants and animals. Whittakers convention of biome-type or formation-type is simply a method to categorize similar communities. Whittaker considered four main ecoclines in the terrestrial realm, changes in physiognomic complexity vary with how favorable of an environment exists
4.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
5.
Shrub
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A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. It is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m tall, such as lavender, periwinkle, an area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage, many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a stool results in long new stems known as canes. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure, shrubs in common garden practice are generally considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are also shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be deciduous or evergreen
6.
Cyperaceae
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The Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses and rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera and these species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be growing in almost all environments, many are associated with wetlands. Ecological communities dominated by sedges are known as sedgelands, features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross-sections and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks. Some well-known sedges include the chestnut and the papyrus sedge. This family also includes cotton-grass, spike-rush, sawgrass, nutsedge or nutgrass, and white star sedge
7.
Poaceae
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Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. Poaceae includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns, Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath, with ca 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40. 5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many habitats, including wetlands, forests. Though commonly called grasses, seagrasses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family, the rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, the term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα. Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms, a cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets, Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Recent findings of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites have pushed this back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, revised dating of the origins of the rice tribe Oryzeae suggested a date as early as 107 to 129 Mya, a multituberculate mammal with grass-eating adaptations seems to suggest that grasses were already around at 120 mya. This separation occurred within the short time span of about 4 million years. Grass leaves are always alternate and distichous, and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem, the leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals, some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath, flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes, the part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets, a floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and anemophilous or wind-pollinated, the perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea, these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. This complex structure can be seen in the image on the right, the fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall
8.
Moss
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Mosses are small flowerless plants that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. Although some species have conducting tissues, these are poorly developed. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores and they are typically 0. 2–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 50 cm in height, mosses are commonly confused with lichens, hornworts, and liverworts. Lichens may superficially look like mosses, and have names that include the word moss. This contrasts with the pattern in all plants, where the diploid sporophyte generation is dominant. Mosses are now classified on their own as the division Bryophyta, the main commercial significance of mosses is as the main constituent of peat, although they are also used for decorative purposes, such as in gardens and in the florist trade. Traditional uses of mosses included as insulation and for the ability to absorb liquids up to 20 times their weight, botanically, mosses are non-vascular plants in the land plant division Bryophyta. They are small plants that absorb water and nutrients mainly through their leaves and harvest carbon dioxide. They differ from plants in lacking water-bearing xylem tracheids or vessels. As in liverworts and hornworts, the gametophyte generation is the dominant phase of the life cycle. This contrasts with the pattern in all plants, where the diploid sporophyte generation is dominant. Mosses reproduce using spores, not seeds, and have no flowers, Moss gametophytes have stems which may be simple or branched and upright or prostrate. Their leaves are simple, usually only a layer of cells with no internal air spaces. They do not have roots, but have threadlike rhizoids that anchor them to their substrate. Mosses do not absorb water or nutrients from their substrate through their rhizoids and they can be distinguished from liverworts by their multi-cellular rhizoids. Spore-bearing capsules or sporangia of mosses are borne singly on long, unbranched stems, thereby distinguishing them from the polysporangiophytes, the spore-bearing sporophytes are short-lived and dependent on the gametophyte for water supply and nutrition. Also, in most mosses, the capsule enlarges and matures after its stalk elongates
9.
Lichen
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A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi in a symbiotic relationship. The combined lichen has properties different from those of its component organisms, Lichens come in many colours, sizes, and forms. The properties are sometimes plant-like, but lichens are not plants, Lichens may have tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, flakes that lie on the surface like peeling paint, or other growth forms. A macrolichen is a lichen that is either bush-like or leafy, here, macro and micro do not refer to size, but to the growth form. Common names for lichens may contain the word moss, and lichens may superficially look like and grow with mosses, Lichens do not have roots that absorb water and nutrients as plants do, but like plants, they produce their own food by photosynthesis. When they grow on plants, they do not live as parasites, Lichens occur from sea level to high alpine elevations, in many environmental conditions, and can grow on almost any surface. Lichens are abundant growing on bark, leaves, mosses, on other lichens and they grow on rock, walls, gravestones, roofs, exposed soil surfaces, and in the soil as part of a biological soil crust. Different kinds of lichens have adapted to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, arctic tundra, hot dry deserts, rocky coasts and they can even live inside solid rock, growing between the grains. It is estimated that 6% of Earths land surface is covered by lichen, there are about 20,000 known species of lichens. Some lichens have lost the ability to reproduce sexually, yet continue to speciate, Lichens may be long-lived, with some considered to be among the oldest living things. They are among the first living things to grow on fresh rock exposed after an event such as a landslide, the long life-span and slow and regular growth rate of some lichens can be used to date events. In American English, lichen is pronounced the same as the verb liken, in British English, both this pronunciation and one rhyming with kitchen /ˈlɪtʃən/) are used. Lichens grow in a range of shapes and forms. The shape of a lichen is determined by the organization of the fungal filaments. The nonreproductive tissues, or vegetative body parts, is called the thallus, Lichens are grouped by thallus type, since the thallus is usually the most visually prominent part of the lichen. Thallus growth forms typically correspond to a few basic internal structure types, Common names for lichens often come from a growth form or color that is typical of a lichen genus. When a crustose lichen gets old, the center may start to crack up like old-dried paint, old-broken asphalt paving and this is called being rimose or areolate, and the island pieces separated by the cracks are called areolas. The areolas appear separated, but are connected by an underlying prothallus or hypothallus, when a crustose lichen grows from a center and appears to radiate out, it is called crustose placodioid
10.
Ecotone
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An ecotone is a transition area between two biomes. It is where two communities meet and integrate and it may be narrow or wide, and it may be local or regional. An ecotone may appear on the ground as a blending of the two communities across a broad area, or it may manifest itself as a sharp boundary line. The word ecotone was coined from a combination of eco plus -tone, from the Greek tonos or tension – in other words, there are several distinguishing features of an ecotone. First, an ecotone can have a sharp transition, with a distinct line between two communities. For example, a change in colors of grasses or plant life can indicate an ecotone, second, a change in physiognomy can be a key indicator. Scientists look at color variations and changes in plant height, third, a change of species can signal an ecotone. There will be specific organisms on one side of an ecotone or the other, other factors can illustrate or obscure an ecotone, for example, migration and the establishment of new plants. These are known as spatial mass effects, which are noticeable because some organisms will not be able to form self-sustaining populations if they cross the ecotone. Lastly, the abundance of species in an ecotone can reveal the type of biome or efficiency of the two communities sharing space. Because an ecotone is the zone in two communities integrate, many different forms of life have to live together and compete for space. Therefore, an ecotone can create a diverse ecosystem, changes in the physical environment may produce a sharp boundary, as in the example of the interface between areas of forest and cleared land. Elsewhere, a more gradually blended interface area will be found, mountain ranges often create such ecotones, due to the wide variety of climatic conditions experienced on their slopes. They may also provide a boundary between species due to the nature of their terrain. Mont Ventoux in France is an example, marking the boundary between the flora and fauna of northern and southern France. Plants in competition extend themselves on one side of the ecotone as far as their ability to maintain themselves allows, beyond this competitors of the adjacent community take over. As a result, the ecotone represents a shift in dominance, ecotones are particularly significant for mobile animals, as they can exploit more than one set of habitats within a short distance. The ecotone contains not only common to the communities on both sides, it may also include a number of highly adaptable species that tend to colonize such transitional areas
11.
Tree line
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The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and in frigid environments, beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions. The tree line should not be confused with a lower timberline or forest line, at the tree line, tree growth is often sparse and stunted, with the last trees forming densely matted bushes, known as krummholz. The tree line, like other natural lines, appears well-defined from a distance. Trees grow shorter towards the inhospitable climate until they stop growing. The climate above the line of mountains is called an alpine climate. In the northern hemisphere treelines on north-facing slopes are lower than on south-facing slopes because the increased shade on north-facing slopes means the snowpack takes longer to melt and this shortens the growing season for trees. In the southern hemisphere, the slopes have the shorter growing season. The alpine tree line boundary is seldom abrupt, it forms a transition zone between closed forest below and treeless alpine tundra above. Environmentally dwarfed shrubs commonly forms the upper limit, the decrease in air temperature due to increasing elevation causes the alpine climate. Skin effects and topography can create microclimates that alter the general cooling trend, however, the number of degree days calculated from leaf temperatures may be very similar in the two kinds of timberlines. A series of warm summers in the 1940s seems to have permitted the establishment of “significant numbers” of spruce seedlings above the treeline in the hills near Fairbanks. Survival depends on a sufficiency of new growth to support the tree, the windiness of high-elevation sites is also a potent determinant of the distribution of tree growth. However, snow accumulation in sheltered gullies in the Selkirk Mountains of southeastern British Columbia causes timberline to be 400 metres lower than on exposed intervening shoulders. In a desert, the line marks the driest places where trees can grow. These tend to be called the tree line and occur below about 5,000 ft elevation in the Desert Southwestern United States. In some mountainous areas, higher elevations above the line or on equator-facing and leeward slopes can result in low rainfall. This dries out the soil, resulting in an arid environment unsuitable for trees
12.
Northern Hemisphere
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The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earths North pole. Due to the Earths axial tilt, winter in the Northern Hemisphere lasts from the December solstice to the March Equinox, the dates vary each year due to the difference between the calendar year and the astronomical year. Its surface is 60. 7% water, compared with 80. 9% water in the case of the Southern Hemisphere, the Arctic is the region north of the Arctic Circle. Its climate is characterized by cold winters and cool summers, precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow. The Arctic experiences some days in summer when the Sun never sets, the duration of these phases varies from one day for locations right on the Arctic Circle to several months near the North Pole, which is the middle of the Northern Hemisphere. Between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer lies the Northern Temperate Zone, the changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold. However, a temperate climate can have very unpredictable weather, tropical regions are generally hot all year round and tend to experience a rainy season during the summer months, and a dry season during the winter months. In the Northern Hemisphere, objects moving across or above the surface of the Earth tend to turn to the right because of the coriolis effect, as a result, large-scale horizontal flows of air or water tend to form clockwise-turning gyres. These are best seen in circulation patterns in the North Atlantic. For the same reason, flows of air down toward the surface of the Earth tend to spread across the surface in a clockwise pattern. Thus, clockwise air circulation is characteristic of high pressure weather cells in the Northern Hemisphere, conversely, air rising from the northern surface of the Earth tends to draw air toward it in a counterclockwise pattern. Hurricanes and tropical storms spin counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, the shadow of a sundial moves clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. When viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, the Moon appears inverted compared to a view from the Southern Hemisphere, the North Pole faces away from the galactic center of the Milky Way. The Northern Hemisphere is home to approximately 6.57 billion people which is around 90% of the total human population of 7.3 billion people
13.
Taiga
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Taiga also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches. The taiga is the worlds largest biome apart from the oceans, in North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States, where it is known as the Northwoods or North woods. However, the tree species, the length of the growing season. Hoffman discusses the origin of this use in North America. Although at high elevations taiga grades into alpine tundra through Krummholz, it is not an alpine biome only like subalpine forest, Taiga is the worlds largest land biome, and makes up 29% of the worlds forest cover, the largest areas are located in Russia and Canada. The taiga is the terrestrial biome with the lowest annual average temperatures after the tundra, extreme winter minimums in the northern taiga are typically lower than those of the tundra. The lowest reliably recorded temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were recorded in the taiga of northeastern Russia, the taiga or boreal forest has a subarctic climate with very large temperature range between seasons, but the long and cold winter is the dominant feature. This climate is classified as Dfc, Dwc, Dsc, Dfd and Dwd in the Köppen climate classification scheme, meaning that the summer lasts 1–3 months. In Siberian taiga the average temperature of the coldest month is between −6 °C and −50 °C, the mean annual temperature generally varies from -5 °C to 5 °C, but there are taiga areas in eastern Siberia and interior Alaska-Yukon where the mean annual reaches down to -10 °C. According to some sources, the boreal forest grades into a mixed forest when mean annual temperature reaches about 3 °C. The winters, with temperatures below freezing, last five to seven months. Temperatures vary from −54 °C to 30 °C throughout the whole year, the summers, while short, are generally warm and humid. In much of the taiga, -20 °C would be a winter day temperature and 18 °C an average summer day. In Canada, Scandinavia and Finland, the season is often estimated by using the period of the year when the 24-hour average temperature is +5 °C or more. For the Taiga Plains in Canada, growing season varies from 80 to 150 days, some sources claim 130 days growing season as typical for the taiga. Other sources mention that 50–100 frost-free days are characteristic, data for locations in southwest Yukon gives 80–120 frost-free days. The closed canopy boreal forest in Kenozersky National Park near Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Province, Russia, the longest growing season is found in the smaller areas with oceanic influences, in coastal areas of Scandinavia and Finland, the growing season of the closed boreal forest can be 145–180 days. High latitudes mean that the sun not rise far above the horizon
14.
Permafrost
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In geology, permafrost is ground, including rock or soil, at or below the freezing point of water 0 °C for two or more years. Most permafrost is located in high latitudes, but alpine permafrost may exist at altitudes in much lower latitudes. Ground ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, Permafrost accounts for 0. 022% of total water on earth and exists in 24% of exposed land in the Northern Hemisphere. It also occurs subsea on the shelves of the continents surrounding the Arctic Ocean, portions of which were exposed during the last glacial period. A global temperature rise of 1.5 °C above current levels would be enough to start the thawing of permafrost in Siberia, Permafrost is soil, rock or sediment that is frozen for more than two consecutive years. In areas not overlain by ice, it exists beneath a layer of soil, rock or sediment, in practice, this means that permafrost occurs at an average air temperature of -2 °C or colder. Active layer thickness varies with the season, but is 0.3 to 4 meters thick, in the Northern Hemisphere, 24% of the ice-free land area, equivalent to 19 million square kilometers, is more or less influenced by permafrost. Most of this area is found in Siberia, northern Canada, Alaska, beneath the active layer annual temperature swings of permafrost become smaller with depth. The deepest depth of permafrost occurs where geothermal heat maintains a temperature above freezing, above that bottom limit there may be permafrost, whose temperature doesnt change annually—isothermal permafrost. The extent of permafrost varies with the climate, today, a considerable area of the Arctic is covered by permafrost. Overlying permafrost is an active layer that seasonally thaws during the summer. Plant life can be supported only within the active layer since growth can occur only in soil that is fully thawed for some part of the year, thickness of the active layer varies by year and location, but is typically 0. 6–4 m thick. In areas of continuous permafrost and harsh winters, the depth of the permafrost can exceed 1,400 m, Permafrost can also store carbon, both as peat and as methane. Work investigating the permafrost carbon pool size estimates that 1400–1700 Gt of carbon is stored in the northern circumpolar permafrost region, while a recent study that includes stores of the Tibetan Plateau, estimates total carbon pools in the permafrost of the Northern Hemisphere to be 1832 Gt. This large carbon pool represents more carbon than currently exists in all living things, Permafrost typically forms in any climate where the mean annual air temperature is less than the freezing point of water. Exceptions are found in moist-wintered forest climates, such as in Northern Scandinavia and the North-Eastern part of European Russia west of the Urals, fossil cold anomalies in the Geothermal gradient in areas where deep permafrost developed during the Pleistocene persist down to several hundred metres. This is evident from temperature measurements in boreholes in North America, typically, the below-ground temperature varies less from season to season than the air temperature, with mean annual temperatures tending to increase with depth. Thus, if the annual air temperature is only slightly below 0 °C
15.
Nganasan people
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The Nganasans are an indigenous Samoyedic people inhabiting the Taymyr Peninsula in north Siberia. In the Russian Federation, they are recognized as being one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, the Nganasans are thought to be the descendants of Paleo-Siberian peoples who were culturally assimilated by various Samoyedic peoples. The Nganasans were traditionally a semi-nomadic people whose main form of subsistence was wild reindeer hunting, in contrast to the Nenets, beginning in the early 17th century, the Nganasans were subjected to the yasak system of Czarist Russia. They lived relatively independently, until the 1970s, when they were settled in the villages live in today. There is no certainty as to the number of Nganasans living in Russia today. The 2002 Russian census counted 862 Nganasans living in Russia,766 of whom lived in the former, however, those who study the Nganasan estimate their population to comprise approximately 1000 people. Some Nganasans live in villages with a Dolgan majority, such as Ust-Avam, the Nganasan language is considered seriously endangered and it is estimated that at most 500 Nganasan can speak the Nganasan language, with very limited profiency among those eighteen and younger. The Nganasans first referred to themselves in Russian as Samoyeds, but they would often use this term when referring to the Enets people and instead refer to themselves as “Avam people. ”For the Nganasans, the term signified ngano-nganasana, which means “real people” in the Nganasan language. The Nganasans were also formerly called Tavgi Samoyeds or Tavgis initially by the Russians, following the Russian Revolution, the Nganasans adopted their current appellation. The Nganasans are the northernmost ethnic group of the Eurasian continent, the hunting areas of the Nganasan often coincided with those of the Dolgans and Enets to their east and west respectively. Another group intermarried with the Paleo-Siberian inhabitants of the Pyasina River, subsequently, a group of Tungusic people migrated to the region near Lake Pyasino and the Avam River, where they were absorbed into Samoyed culture, forming a new group called the Tidiris. By the middle of the 17th century, Tungusic peoples began to push the Samoyedic peoples northward towards the tundra Taymyr Peninsula, where they merged into one tribe called “Avam Nganasans. ”As the Tavgs were the largest Samoyedic group at the time of this merger, their dialect formed the basis of the present-day Nganasan language. Tribute collectors established themselves at the “Avam Winter Quarters, ” at the confluence of the Avam River and Dudypta River rivers, the Nganasans often tried to avoid paying yasak by changing the names that they provided to the Russians. Relations between the Russians and Nganasans were not always peaceful, in 1666, the Nganasans ambushed and killed yasak collectors, soldiers, tradesmen, and their interpreters on three different occasions, stealing the sable furs and property belonging to them. Over the course of the year,35 men were killed in total, the Nganasan had little direct contact with merchants and, unlike most indigenous Siberians, they were never baptized or contacted by missionaries. Some Nganasans traded directly with the Russians, while others did so via the Dolgans and they usually exchanged sable furs for alcohol, tobacco, tea, and various tools, products which quickly integrated themselves into Nganasan culture. Another import from the Russians was disease, in the 1830s, and again from 1907 to 1908, the Nganasans were ravaged by smallpox outbreaks. The Nganasans first came into contact with the Soviets around in the 1930s, additionally, the Soviets took a greater interest in the Nganasans as a people, and starting in the 1930s, ethnographers began to study their customs
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Nenet people
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The Nenets, also known as Samoyeds, are an indigenous people in northern arctic Russia. According to the latest census in 2010, there are 44,857 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and they speak either the Tundra or Forest varieties of Nenets. 9th century, they were called Самоядь, Самодь, which was transliterated into English as Samodi. The literal morphs samo and yed in Russian convey the meaning self-eater, therefore, the name Samoyed quickly went out of usage in the 20th century, and the people bear the name of Nenets, which means man. Currently, the term Samoyedic peoples applies to the group of different peoples. It is the term which includes the Nenets, Enets, Selkup. The Nenets language is on the Samoyedic branch of the Uralic language family, between 26,500 and 27,000 people in Siberia speak the language. Ethnologue cites that in Siberia, Russian Federation, most young people are fluent in Nenets. Overall, the majority of speakers are from older generations, UNESCO classifies it as an endangered language. Some believe that the use of Russian and Komi is due to inter ethnic marriages, there are two distinct groups of Nenets stricto sensu based on their economy, the Tundra Nenets and the Khandeyar or Forest Nenets. A distinct third group of Nenets has emerged as a result of intermarriages between Nenets and Izhma Komi people, the Samoyedic languages form a branch of the Uralic language family. They moved from south in Siberia to the northernmost part of what later became Russia sometime before the 12th century. They ended up between the Kanin and Taymyr peninsulas, around the Ob and Yenisey rivers, with only a few of them settling into small communities like Kolva and their main subsistence comes from hunting and reindeer herding. Using reindeer as a draft animal throughout the year enables them to great distances. Large-scale reindeer herding emerged in the 18th century, Tundra wolves can be a source of considerable economic loss, as they prey on the reindeer herds which are the livelihood of some Nenets families. Along with reindeer meat, fish is a component in the Nenets diet. They have a shamanistic and animistic belief system which stresses respect for the land and they had a clan-based social structure. The Nenets shaman is called a Tadibya, after the Russian Revolution, their culture suffered due to Soviet collectivisation policy
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Sami people
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The Sami people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sami are the indigenous people of Scandinavia recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples. Sami ancestral lands are not well-defined and their traditional languages are the Sami languages and are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family. Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including fishing, fur trapping. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding, currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sami people are involved in herding on a full-time basis. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in regions of the Nordic countries. The Sámi are often known in other languages by the exonyms Lap, Lapp, some Sami regard these as pejorative terms, while others do not. Finn was the originally used by Norse speakers to refer to the Sami, as attested in the Icelandic Eddas. As Old Norse gradually developed into the separate Scandinavian languages, Swedes apparently took to using Finn exclusively to refer to inhabitants of Finland, Finnish immigrants to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries were referred to as Kvens to distinguish them from the Sami Finns. Ethnic Finns are a group from Sami. In fact, Saxo never explicitly connects the Sami with the two Laplands, there is another suggestion that it originally meant wilds. In Finland and Sweden, Lapp is common in names, such as Lappi, Lappeenranta and Lapinlahti in Finland. As already mentioned, Finn is an element in Norwegian place names. In the North Sámi language, láhppon olmmoš means a person who is lost, Sámi refer to themselves as Sámit or Sápmelaš, the word Sámi being inflected into various grammatical forms. It has been proposed that Sámi, Häme, and perhaps Suomi are of the origin and ultimately borrowed from the Baltic word *žēmē. The Baltic word is cognate with Slavic земля, which means land. The Sámi institutions—notably the parliaments, radio and TV stations, theatres, etc. —all use the term Sámi, including when addressing outsiders in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, or English
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Siberia
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Siberia is an extensive geographical region, and by the broadest definition is also known as North Asia. Siberia has historically been a part of Russia since the 17th century, the territory of Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins. It stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the borders of Mongolia. With an area of 13.1 million square kilometres, Siberia accounts for 77% of Russias land area and this is equivalent to an average population density of about 3 inhabitants per square kilometre, making Siberia one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. If it were a country by itself, it would still be the largest country in area, the origin of the name is unknown. Some sources say that Siberia originates from the Siberian Tatar word for sleeping land, another account sees the name as the ancient tribal ethnonym of the Sirtya, a folk, which spoke a language that later evolved into the Ugric languages. This ethnic group was assimilated to the Siberian Tatar people. The modern usage of the name was recorded in the Russian language after the Empires conquest of the Siberian Khanate, a further variant claims that the region was named after the Xibe people. The Polish historian Chycliczkowski has proposed that the name derives from the word for north. He said that the neighbouring Chinese, Arabs and Mongolians would not have known Russian and he suggests that the name is a combination of two words, su and bir. The region is of significance, as it contains bodies of prehistoric animals from the Pleistocene Epoch. Specimens of Goldfuss cave lion cubs, Yuka and another woolly mammoth from Oymyakon, a rhinoceros from the Kolyma River. The Siberian Traps were formed by one of the largest known volcanic events of the last 500 million years of Earths geological history. They continued for a million years and are considered a cause of the Great Dying about 250 million years ago. At least three species of human lived in Southern Siberia around 40,000 years ago, H. sapiens, H. neanderthalensis, the last was determined in 2010, by DNA evidence, to be a new species. Siberia was inhabited by different groups of such as the Enets, the Nenets, the Huns, the Scythians. The Khan of Sibir in the vicinity of modern Tobolsk was known as a prominent figure who endorsed Kubrat as Khagan of Old Great Bulgaria in 630, the Mongols conquered a large part of this area early in the 13th century. With the breakup of the Golden Horde, the autonomous Khanate of Sibir was established in the late 15th century, turkic-speaking Yakut migrated north from the Lake Baikal region under pressure from the Mongol tribes during the 13th to 15th century
19.
Ericaceae
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The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acid and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, the many well-known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers. The Ericaceae contain a diverse range of taxa, including herbs, dwarf shrubs, shrubs. Their leaves are alternate or whorled, simple and without stipules. Their flowers are hermaphrodite and show considerable variability, the petals are often fused with shapes ranging from narrowly tubular to funnelform or widely bowl-shaped. The corollas are usually symmetrical, but many flowers of the genus Rhododendron are somewhat bilaterally symmetrical. Adanson used the term Vaccinia to describe a family. The name comes from the type genus Erica, which appears to be derived from the Greek word ereike, the exact meaning is difficult to interpret, but some sources show it as meaning heather. Historically, the Ericaceae included both subfamilies and tribes, within tribe Rhodoreae, five genera were described, Rhododendron L. Therorhodion Small, Ledum L. Tsusiophyllum Max. Menziesia J. E. Smith, that were transferred into Rhododendron. The move significantly increased the morphological and geographical range found within the group, the Ericaceae have a nearly worldwide distribution. They are absent from continental Antarctica, parts of the high Arctic, central Greenland, northern and central Australia, the family is largely composed of plants that can tolerate acidic, infertile conditions. Like other stress-tolerant plants, many Ericaceae have mycorrhizal fungi to assist with extracting nutrients from infertile soils and this trait is not found in the Clethraceae and Cyrillaceae, the two families most closely related to the Ericaceae. Most Ericaceae form a distinctive accumulation of mycorrhizae, in which grow in and around the roots. The Pyroloideae are mixotrophic and gain sugars from the mycorrhizae, as well as nutrients, in many parts of the world, a heath or heathland is an environment characterised by an open dwarf-shrub community found on low-quality acidic soils, generally dominated by plants in the Ericaceae. A common example is Erica tetralix and this plant family is also typical of peat bogs and blanket bogs, examples include Rhododendron groenlandicum and Kalmia polifolia. In eastern North America, members of this family grow in association with an oak canopy. Some evidence suggests eutrophic rainwater can convert ericoid heaths with species such as Erica tetralix to grasslands, nitrogen is particularly suspect in this regard, and may be causing measurable changes to the distribution and abundance of some ericaceous species
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Empetrum nigrum
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It is also native in the Falkland Islands. It is usually dioecious, but there is a bisexual tetraploid subspecies, Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum, evolutionary biologists have explained the striking geographic distribution of crowberries as a result of long-distance migratory birds dispersing seeds from one pole to the other. The metabolism and photosynthetic parameters of Empetrum can be altered in winter-warming experiments, the leaves are 3–6 mm long, arranged alternately along the stem. The fruits are drupes, 4–6 mm wide, usually black or purplish-black and their vitamin content is low, as is the concentration of volatile liquids, the lack of which makes them almost odorless. The acidity is lower than is typically encountered in forest berries, asiaticum Kuvaev – Korean crowberry E. nigrum can be grown in acidic soils in shady, moist areas. It can be grown for the fruit, as a ground cover, or as an ornamental plant in rock gardens. The fruit is high in anthocyanin pigment, and can be used to make a food dye. After waning popularity, E. nigrum is regaining its reputation as an edible fruit and it provides a steady crop and the gathering is relatively easy. The fruits make good pie and jam, in subarctic areas, E. nigrum has been a vital addition to the diet of the Inuit and the Sami. The Denaina harvest it for food, sometimes storing in quantity for winter, the fruits are usually collected in fall, but if not picked they may persist on the plant and can be picked in the spring. They keep well in a place without any special preparation. The Inuit and Native Americans mix them with other berries, especially blueberries, the leaves and stems are used in Denaina medicine for diarrhea and stomach problems, they are boiled or soaked in hot water, and the strained liquid drunk. In Denaina plantlore in the Outer and Upper Inlet area of Lake Clark, the roots are boiled and the eyes are washed with the strained, cooled tea, to which a little sugar may be added. In Labrador, where the name blackberry is used, the smoke of the stems and leaves is used to smoke fish, notably Salmon, Sea Trout
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Arctostaphylos alpina
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Arctostaphylos alpina, with the common names alpine bearberry, mountain bearberry, or black bearberry is a dwarf shrub in the heather family Ericaceae. The basionym of this species is Arbutus alpina L. Arctostaphylos alpina is a procumbent shrub usually less than 6 inches high with a woody stem, the leaves are alternate and wither in the autumn but remain on the plant for another year. The leaves are stalked and are oval with serrated margins and a network of veins and they often turn red to scarlet in autumn. The flowers are in groups of two to five, white or pink and urn-shaped and about 3 to 5 mm long and they have five sepals, five fused petals with five small projecting lobes, ten stamens and a single carpel. The fruits are spherical,9 to 12 mm long, initially green, then red and finally glossy black, Arctostaphylos alpina has a circumpolar distribution. It is found at high latitudes, from Scotland east across Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, Northern Canada and Greenland. Its southern limits in Europe are the Pyrenees and the Alps, in Asia, the Altay Mountains and Mongolia, and in North America, British Columbia in the west, and Maine and New Hampshire in the east. Its natural habitat is moorland, dry forests with birch and pine, Arctostaphylos alpina forms a symbiotic relationship live with fungi which supply it with nutrients such as phosphorus. The berries are appreciated by birds, USDA Plants Profile for Arctostaphylos alpina University of Michigan—Dearborn, Native American Ethnobotany for Arctostaphylos alpina — traditional medicinal and culinary uses
22.
Habitat
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A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and it is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, habitat types include polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical. The terrestrial vegetation type may be forest, steppe, grassland, the word habitat has been in use since about 1755 and derives from the Latin third-person singular present indicative of habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Habitat can be defined as the environment of an organism. It is similar in meaning to a biotope, an area of environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants. Generally speaking, animal communities are reliant on specific types of plant communities, some plants and animals are generalists, and their habitat requirements are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica and its larvae feed on a wide range of Brassicas and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiverse habitats, in the absence of disturbance, a climax vegetation cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as pioneering species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly coastal habitats can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm, another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an invasive introduced species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat. Terrestrial habitat types include forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts, within these broad biomes are more specific habitats with varying climate types, temperature regimes, soils, altitudes and vegetation types. Many of these habitats grade into each other and each one has its own communities of plants. A habitat may suit a particular species well, but its presence or absence at any particular location depends to some extent on chance, on its dispersal abilities, freshwater habitats include rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. Although some organisms are found across most of these habitats, the majority have more specific requirements, similarly, aquatic plants can be floating, semi-submerged, submerged or grow in permanently or temporarily saturated soils besides bodies of water. Marine habitats include brackish water, estuaries, bays, the sea, the intertidal zone. Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, the benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate, and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface. A desert is not the kind of habitat that favours the presence of amphibians, with their requirement for water to keep their skins moist, nevertheless, some frogs live in deserts, creating moist habitats underground and hibernating while conditions are adverse
23.
Conservation movement
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The early conservation movement included fisheries and wildlife management, water, soil conservation and sustainable forestry. Some say the movement is part of the broader and more far-reaching environmental movement. Chiefly in the United States, conservation is seen as differing from environmentalism in that it aims to preserve natural resources expressly for their sustainable use by humans. The conservation movement can be traced back to John Evelyns work Sylva, published as a book two years later, it was one of the most highly influential texts on forestry ever published. The field developed during the 18th century, especially in Prussia and these methods were first applied rigorously in British India from the early-19th century. This early ecological idea was in order to preserve the growth of teak trees. The first forestry officer was appointed in 1806 to regulate and preserve the trees necessary for shipbuilding and this promising start received a setback in the 1820s and 30s, when laissez-faire economics and complaints from private landowners brought these early conservation attempts to an end. Conservation was revived in the century, with the first practical application of scientific conservation principles to the forests of India. Edward Percy Stebbing warned of desertification of India and this was the first case of state management of forests in the world. These local attempts gradually received more attention by the British government as the unregulated felling of trees continued unabated, in 1850, the British Association in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of Dr. Hugh Cleghorn a pioneer in the nascent conservation movement. He had become interested in forest conservation in Mysore in 1847, in the same year, Cleghorn organised the Madras Forest Department and in 1860 the Department banned the use shifting cultivation. Cleghorns 1861 manual, The forests and gardens of South India, in 1861, the Forest Department extended its remit into the Punjab. Sir Dietrich Brandis, a German forester, joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the forests of Pegu division in eastern Burma. During that time Burmas teak forests were controlled by militant Karen tribals and he introduced the taungya system, in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. After seven years in Burma, Brandis was appointed Inspector General of Forests in India and he formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The Imperial Forest School at Dehradun was founded by him, germans were prominent in the forestry administration of British India. As well as Brandis, Berthold Ribbentrop and Sir William P. D, schlich brought new methods to Indian conservation, the latter becoming the Inspector-General in 1883 after Brandis stepped down. Schlich helped to establish the journal Indian Forester in 1874, and he authored the five-volume Manual of Forestry on silviculture, forest management, forest protection, and forest utilisation, which became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students
24.
Biodiversity action plan
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A biodiversity action plan is an internationally recognized program addressing threatened species and habitats and is designed to protect and restore biological systems. The original impetus for these plans derives from the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, as of 2009,191 countries have ratified the CBD, but only a fraction of these have developed substantive BAP documents. A fundamental method of engagement to a BAP is thorough documentation regarding individual species and it is also useful to compile time trends of population estimates in order to understand the dynamics of population variability and vulnerability. A species plan component of a country’s BAP should ideally entail a thorough description of the range, habitat, behaviour, breeding, once a determination has been made of conservation status, a plan can then be created to conserve and restore the species population to target levels. The plan should also articulate which public and private agencies should implement the protection strategy, where a number of threatened species depend upon a specific habitat, it may be appropriate to prepare a habitat protection element of the Biodiversity Action Plan. Examples of such habitats are, raised acidic bogs of Scotland, Waterberg Biosphere bushveld in South Africa, California’s coastal wetlands. In this case also, careful inventories of species and also the geographic extent, then, as with species plans, a program can be created to protect, enhance and/or restore habitat using similar strategies as discussed above under the species plans. Some examples of countries which have produced substantive Biodiversity Action Plans follow. Preparation of a country BAP may cost up to 100 million pounds sterling, if plans took into account neglected groups, the cost would be higher. Obviously costs for countries with small geographical area or simplified ecosystems have a lesser cost. For example, the St. Lucia BAP has been costed in the area of several million pounds sterling, australia has developed a detailed and rigorous Biodiversity Action Plan. This document estimates that the number of indigenous species may be 560,000. There is, however, serious ongoing concerns, particularly in regards to the negative impact on water quality from land use practices. Also, climate change impact is feared to be significant, considerable analysis has been conducted on the sustainable yield of firewood production, a major threat to deforestation in most tropical countries. Biological inventory work, assessment of harvesting practices, and computer modeling of the dynamics of treefall, rot, New Zealand has ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity and as part of The New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy and Biodiversity Action Plans are implemented on ten separate themes. Local government and some also have their own Biodiversity Action Plan. The St. Lucia BAP recognizes impacts of large numbers of tourists to the marine, the BAP specifically acknowledges that the carrying capacity for human use and water pollution discharge of sensitive reef areas was exceeded by the year 1990. The plan also addresses conservation of the historic island fishing industry, in 1992, several institutions in conjunction with native fishermen to produce a sustainable management plan for fishery resources, embodied in the Soufrière Marine Management Area
25.
Vuntut National Park
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Vuntut National Park is a national park located in northern Yukon, Canada. Due to land claims negotiations, this park is still very undeveloped. It currently has no roads or developed trails, vuntut National Park is adjacent to another Canadian National Park, Ivvavik National Park. Also, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lies just across the Canada–US border in Alaska, National Parks of Canada List of National Parks of Canada List of Yukon parks Official site
26.
Muskox
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This musky odor is used to attract females during mating season. Its Inuktitut name umingmak translates to the bearded one. Muskoxen primarily live in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, with introduced populations in Sweden, Siberia, Norway. As members of the subfamily Caprinae of the family Bovidae, muskoxen are more related to sheep and goats than to oxen, however, they are placed in their own genus. The muskox is one of the two largest extant members of Caprinae, along with the similarly sized takin, instead, the muskoxs closest living relatives appear to be the gorals of the genus Naemorhedus, nowadays common in many countries of central and east Asia. The vague similarity between takin and muskox must therefore be considered an example of convergent evolution, the modern muskox is the last member of a line of ovibovines that first evolved in temperate regions of Asia and adapted to a cold tundra environment late in its evolutionary history. Later migration waves of Asian ungulates that included high-horned muskoxen reached Europe, Euceratherium was larger yet more lightly built than modern muskoxen, looking like a giant sheep with massive horns, and preferred hilly grasslands. A genus with horns, Soergelia, inhabited Eurasia in the early Pleistocene, from Spain to Siberia. The low-horned Praeovibos was present in Europe and the Mediterranean 1.5 million years ago, colonized Alaska, Praeovibos was a highly adaptable animal that appears associated with cold tundra and temperate woodland faunas alike. It is debated, however, if Praeovibos was directly ancestral to Ovibos, modern Ovibos appeared in Germany almost one million years ago and was common in the region through the Pleistocene. By the Mindel, muskoxen had also reached the British Isles, likewise, the muskox is known to have survived in Britain during warm interglacial periods. After migrating south during one of the periods of the Illinoian glaciation. The muskox was already present in its current stronghold of Banks Island 34,000 years ago, but the existence of other ice-free areas in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago at the time is disputed. Along with the bison and the pronghorn, the muskox was one of a few species of Pleistocene megafauna in North America to survive the Pleistocene/Holocene extinction event, the muskox is thought to have been able to survive the Last glacial period by finding ice-free areas away from prehistoric peoples. Fossil DNA evidence suggests that muskoxen were not only more geographically widespread during the Pleistocene, during that time, other populations of muskoxen lived across the Arctic, from the Ural Mountains to Greenland. By contrast, the current genetic makeup of the species is more homogenous, both male and female muskoxen have long, curved horns. Muskoxen stand 1.1 to 1.5 m high at the shoulder, with females measuring 135 to 200 cm in length, the small tail, often concealed under a layer of fur, measures only 10 cm long. Adults, on average, weigh 285 kg and range from 180 to 410 kg, the thick coat and large head suggests a larger animal than the muskox truly is, the bison, to which the muskox is often compared, can weigh up to twice as much. However, heavy zoo-kept specimens have weighed up to 650 kg and their coat, a mix of black, gray, and brown, includes long guard hairs that almost reach the ground
27.
Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
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Arctic hare
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The Arctic hare, or polar rabbit, is a species of hare which is highly adapted to living in the artic tundra, and other icy biomes. The Arctic hare survives with shortened ears and limbs, a nose, body fat that makes up 20% of its body. It usually digs holes in the ground or under snow to keep warm, Arctic hares look like rabbits but have shorter ears, are taller when standing, and, unlike rabbits, can thrive in extreme cold. They can travel together with other hares, sometimes huddling with dozens or more. The Arctic hare can run up to 60 kilometres per hour, known predators of the Arctic hare are the Arctic fox, red fox, gray wolf, Canada lynx, ermine, snowy owl, gyrfalcon, rough-legged hawk, and humans. The Arctic wolf is probably the most successful predator of the Arctic hare, Arctic foxes and ermines, which are smaller, typically prey on young hares. Gyrfalcon carry hares to their nests, cutting them in half first, gyrfalcons use hare bones and feet in the structure of their nests on Ellesmere Island, peregrine falcons also prey on Arctic hares in the southern end of the hares range. The Snowy owls mainly targets young hare, the French common name of the species derives from Anglo-Saxon harfang, fleas are more common than parasitic worms. The Arctic hare is distributed over the northernmost regions of Greenland, the Canadian arctic islands and Northern Canada, including Ellesmere Island, the Arctic hare is well-adapted to the conditions found in the tundras, plateaus and treeless coasts of this region, including cold weather and frozen precipitation. The Arctic hare may be found at elevations between 0 and 900 m, however, the Arctic hares in the far north of Canada, where summer is very short, remain white all year round. The Arctic hare is one of the largest living lagomorphs, on average, this species measures from 43 to 70 cm long, not counting a tail length of 4. 5–10 cm. The body mass of species is typically between 2. 5–5.5 kg, though large individuals can weigh up to 7 kg. The Arctic hare is a herbivore, and specifically a folivore, Arctic hares feed primarily on woody plants, and willow constitutes 95 percent of their diet year-round. Arctic hare diets are diverse in summer, but still primarily consists of willow, dryas. Arctic hare have been reported to eat meat, including fish. They eat snow to get water, female hares can have up to eight baby hares called leverets. The leverets stay within the home range until they are old enough to survive on their own. There is little information on the lifespan of Arctic hare, some anecdotal evidence suggests they live three to five years in the wild
29.
Arctic fox
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The Arctic fox, also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in cold environments and it has a deep thick fur which is brown in summer and white in winter. Its body length ranges from 46 to 68 cm, with a rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat. The Arctic fox preys on any small creatures such as, lemmings, voles, ringed seal pups, fish, waterfowl and it also eats carrion, berries, seaweed, insects, and other small invertebrates. Arctic foxes form monogamous pairs during the season and they stay together to raise their young in complex underground dens. Occasionally, other members may assist in raising their young. The Arctic fox lives in some of the most frigid extremes on the planet, the fox has a low surface area to volume ratio, as evidenced by its generally compact body shape, short muzzle and legs, and short, thick ears. Since less of its area is exposed to the Arctic cold. Its paws have fur on the soles for additional insulation and to help it walk on ice and its fur changes color with the seasons, in most populations it is white in the winter to blend in with snow, while in the summer it is greyish-brown or darker brown. In some populations, however, it is a steely bluish-gray in the winter, the fur of the Arctic fox provides the best insulation of any mammal. The Arctic fox has such keen hearing, it can determine exactly where an animal is moving under the snow. When it has located its prey, it pounces and punches through the snow to catch its victim, Arctic foxes do not hibernate and are active all year round. They build up their fat reserves in the autumn, sometimes increasing their weight by more than 50%. This provides greater insulation during the winter and a source of energy when food is scarce and they live in large dens in frost-free, slightly raised ground. These are complex systems of tunnels covering as much as 1,000 m2 and are often in eskers and they have multiple entrances and may have been in existence for many decades and used by many generations of foxes. Arctic foxes tend to form pairs in the breeding season. Breeding usually takes place in April and May, and the period is about 52 days. Litters tend to average five to eight kits, but exceptionally contain as many as 25, both the mother and father help to raise the young which emerge from the den when 3 to 4 weeks old and are weaned by 9 weeks of age
30.
Poikilotherm
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A poikilotherm is an organism whose internal temperature varies considerably. It is the opposite of a homeotherm, an organism which maintains thermal homeostasis, usually the variation is a consequence of variation in the ambient environmental temperature. However some ectotherms remain in temperature-constant environments to the point that they are able to maintain a constant internal temperature. It is this distinction that often makes the term poikilotherm more useful than the vernacular cold-blooded, poikilothermic animals include types of vertebrate animals, specifically fish, amphibians, and reptiles, as well as a large number of invertebrate animals. The naked mole-rat is the only mammal that is thought to be poikilothermic. The term derives from Greek poikilos, meaning varied, ultimately from thousand-making and thermos, for an important chemical reaction, poikilotherms may have four to ten enzyme systems that operate at different temperatures. As a result, poikilotherms often have larger, more complex genomes than homeotherms in the ecological niche. Frogs are an example of this effect, though their complex development is likely more important. The metabolism of poikilotherms favors strategies such as sit-and-wait hunting over chasing prey for animals with high movement cost. As they do not use their metabolisms to heat or cool themselves, for the same body weight, poikilotherms need only 5 to 10% of the energy of homeotherms. Lizards and snakes bask in the sun in the morning and late evening. The eggs of the bumblebee are unable to regulate heat. The bumblebee generates heat by shivering flight muscles even though they are not flying, termite mounds are usually oriented in a north-south direction so that they absorb as much heat as possible around dawn and dusk and minimise heat absorption around noon. Tuna are able to warm their bodies through a heat exchange mechanism called the rete mirabile, which helps keep heat inside the body. They also have their swimming muscles near the center of their bodies instead of near the surface, gigantothermy means using a low ratio of surface area to volume to minimise heat loss, such as in sea turtles. Camels, although they are homeotherms, thermoregulate using a method termed temperature cycling to conserve energy, in hot deserts, they allow their body temperature to rise during the day and fall during the night, adjusting their body temperature to cycle over approximately 6°C. It is comparatively easy for a poikilotherm to accumulate enough energy to reproduce, poikilotherms at the same trophic level often have much shorter generations than homeotherms, weeks rather than years. Such applies even to animals with similar ecological roles such as cats and this difference in energy requirement also means that a given food source can support a greater density of poikilothermic animals than homeothermic animals
31.
Alaska
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Alaska is a U. S. state located in the northwest extremity of North America. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the southern parts of the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 3rd least populous, approximately half of Alaskas residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaskas economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, the area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11,1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U. S. on January 3,1959, the name Alaska was introduced in the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut, or Unangam idiom, which refers to the mainland of Alaska. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed, Alaska is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States and has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere. Alaska is the only non-contiguous U. S. state on continental North America and it is technically part of the continental U. S. but is sometimes not included in colloquial use, Alaska is not part of the contiguous U. S. often called the Lower 48. The capital city, Juneau, is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system. Alaskas territorial waters touch Russias territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island, Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U. S. states combined. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by total area at 663,268 square miles, over twice the size of Texas, Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign countries. Counting territorial waters, Alaska is larger than the area of the next three largest states, Texas, California, and Montana. It is also larger than the area of the 22 smallest U. S. states. Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage, this is the region of Alaska closest to the rest of the United States, as such, this was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the years following the Alaska Purchase. The region is dominated by the Alexander Archipelago as well as the Tongass National Forest and it contains the state capital Juneau, the former capital Sitka, and Ketchikan, at one time Alaskas largest city. The Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital transportation link throughout the area. The Interior is the largest region of Alaska, much of it is uninhabited wilderness, Fairbanks is the only large city in the region
32.
Global warming
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Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earths climate system and its related effects. Multiple lines of evidence show that the climate system is warming. The largest human influence has been emission of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane. These findings have been recognized by the science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing. Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe, anticipated effects include warming global temperature, rising sea levels, changing precipitation, and expansion of deserts in the subtropics. Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic, with the retreat of glaciers, permafrost. Effects significant to humans include the threat to security from decreasing crop yields. Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction, adaptation to its effects, building systems resilient to its effects, most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change. Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing, a global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54% consider it a very serious problem. There are significant regional differences, with Americans and Chinese among the least concerned, the global average surface temperature shows a warming of 0.85 °C in the period 1880 to 2012, based on multiple independently produced datasets. Earths average surface temperature rose by 0. 74±0.18 °C over the period 1906–2005, the rate of warming almost doubled for the last half of that period. The rest has melted ice and warmed the continents and atmosphere, the average temperature of the lower troposphere has increased between 0.12 and 0.135 °C per decade since 1979, according to satellite temperature measurements. The warming that is evident in the temperature record is consistent with a wide range of observations. The probability that these changes could have occurred by chance is virtually zero, temperature changes vary over the globe. Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as ocean temperatures, ocean temperatures increase more slowly than land temperatures because of the larger effective heat capacity of the oceans and because the ocean loses more heat by evaporation. Since the beginning of industrialisation the temperature difference between the hemispheres has increased due to melting of sea ice and snow in the North. Average arctic temperatures have been increasing at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world in the past 100 years, the thermal inertia of the oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that climate can take centuries or longer to adjust to changes in forcing. Some of this warming will be driven by past natural forcings which are still seeking equilibrium in the climate system
33.
Greenhouse gas
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A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earths atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, without greenhouse gases, the average temperature of Earths surface would be about −18 °C, rather than the present average of 15 °C. In the Solar System, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution have produced a 40% increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, from 280 ppm in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2015. This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a portion of the emissions by various natural sinks involved in the carbon cycle. Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions come from combustion of fuels, principally coal, oil. Greenhouse gases are those that absorb and emit infrared radiation in the range emitted by Earth. The proportion of an emission remaining in the atmosphere after a time is the airborne fraction. The annual airborne fraction is the ratio of the increase in a given year to that years total emissions. Over the last 50 years the annual airborne fraction for CO2 has been increasing at 0.25 ±0. 21%/year, therefore, they do not contribute significantly to the greenhouse effect and usually are omitted when discussing greenhouse gases. Some gases have indirect radiative effects and this happens in two main ways. One way is that when they break down in the atmosphere they produce another greenhouse gas, for example, methane and carbon monoxide are oxidized to give carbon dioxide. Oxidation of CO to CO2 directly produces an increase in radiative forcing although the reason is subtle. The peak of the thermal IR emission from Earths surface is close to a strong vibrational absorption band of CO2. On the other hand, the single CO vibrational band only absorbs IR at much higher frequencies, where the ~300 K thermal emission of the surface is at least a factor of ten lower. Oxidation of methane to CO2, which requires reactions with the OH radical, produces a reduction, since CO2 is a weaker greenhouse gas than methane. As described below this is not the story, since the oxidations of CO. In any case, the calculation of the radiative effect needs to include both the direct and indirect forcing
34.
Brooks Range
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The Brooks Range is a mountain range in far northern North America stretching some 700 miles from west to east across northern Alaska into Canadas Yukon Territory. Reaching a peak elevation of 8,976 feet on Mount Isto, while the range is mostly uninhabited, the Dalton Highway and Trans-Alaska Pipeline System run through the Atigun Pass on their way to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay on Alaskas North Slope. The Alaska Native villages of Anaktuvuk and Arctic Village, as well as the small communities of Coldfoot, Wiseman, Bettles. In the far west, near the Wulik River in the De Long Mountains is the Red Dog mine, the range was named by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1925 after Alfred Hulse Brooks, chief USGS geologist for Alaska from 1903 to 1924. Mount Isto 8,975.1 ft Mount Hubley 8,914 ft Mount Chamberlin 8,898, the range roughly delineates the summer position of the Arctic front. It represents the extent of the tree line, with little beyond isolated Balsam poplar stands occurring north of the continental drainage divide. Trembling aspen and white also occur north of the Brooks Range. Southern slopes have some cover of Black Spruce, Picea mariana, as one of the most remote and least-disturbed wildernesses of North America, the mountains are home to Dall sheep, grizzly bears, and caribou. In Alaska, the 490,000 animal strong Western Arctic Caribou herd traverses the Brooks Range in its annual migration, the migration path of the Porcupine Caribou Herd is the longest of any terrestrial mammal on earth. Because it is composed of ancient seabed, the Brooks Range contains ancient marine. In addition to the fossils shown at left, trilobites. While other Alaskan ranges to the south and closer to the coast can receive 250 inches to 500 inches of snow, as measured at the Anaktuvuk Pass weather station, the average summer temperatures are 3 °C as a low and 16 °C as a high. Arctic citadel, a history of exploration in the Brooks Range region of Northern Alaska, washington, D. C, U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Geologic and fossil locality maps of the part of the Howard Pass quadrangle and part of the adjacent Misheguk Mountain quadrangle, Western Brooks Range. U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, krumhardt, A. P. A. G. Harris, and K. F. Watts. U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, Alaska wilderness, exploring the Central Brooks Range 2nd ed. Berkeley, University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24498-2 Mayfield, C. F. et al, reconnaissance geologic map of southeastern Misheguk Mountain quadrangle, Alaska. U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, gravity and magnetic maps of part of the Drenchwater Creek stratiform zinc-lead-silver deposit, Howard Pass quadrangle, northwestern Brooks Range, Alaska
35.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
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South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia, South Georgia is 165 kilometres long and 1 to 35 km wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 700 kilometres southeast of South Georgia, the total land area of the territory is 3,903 square kilometres. There is no permanent population on the islands, the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over South Georgia in 1775 and the South Sandwich Islands in 1908. The territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands was formed in 1985, Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927 and claimed the South Sandwich Islands in 1938. Argentina maintained a station, Corbeta Uruguay, on Thule Island in the South Sandwich Islands from 1976 until 1982 when it was closed by the Royal Navy. The Argentine claim over South Georgia contributed to the 1982 Falklands War, Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant and it was sighted by the commercial Spanish ship León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756. At one time it was confused with Pepys Island, which was discovered by Dampier and Cowley in 1683, captain James Cook circumnavigated the island in 1775 and made the first landing. He claimed the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were established under the 1843 British Letters Patent. In 1882–1883, a German expedition for the First International Polar Year was stationed at Royal Bay on the southeast side of the island, the scientists of this group observed the transit of Venus and recorded waves produced by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Seal hunting at South Georgia began in 1786 and continued throughout the 19th century, the waters proved treacherous and a number of vessels were wrecked there, such as Earl Spencer, in late 1801. South Georgia became a base for whaling beginning in the 20th century, a Norwegian, Carl Anton Larsen, established the first land-based whaling station and first permanent habitation at Grytviken in 1904. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company, which settled in Grytviken, the station remained in operation until 1965. Whaling stations operated under leases granted by the Governor of the Falkland Islands, one was called a charnel house boiling wholesale in vaseline by an early 20th-century visitor. With the end of the industry, the stations were abandoned. Apart from a few preserved buildings such as the museum and church at Grytviken, in 1908, the United Kingdom issued further Letters Patent that established constitutional arrangements for its possessions in the South Atlantic. The Letters Patent covered South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, the South Sandwich Islands, in 1909, an administrative centre and residence were established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken
36.
Kerguelen Islands
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The Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting one of the two exposed parts of the mostly submerged Kerguelen Plateau. They are among the most isolated places on Earth, located 450 km northwest of the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands and more than 3,300 km from Madagascar, the nearest populated location. The main island, Grande Terre, is 6,675 km2 in area and is surrounded by a further 300 smaller islands and islets, the climate is raw and chilly with frequent high winds throughout the year. The surrounding seas are generally rough and they remain ice-free year-round, there are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of 45 to 100 scientists, engineers and researchers. There are no airports on the islands, so all travel, Kerguelen Islands appear as the Ile de Nachtegal on Philippe Buaches map from 1754 before the island was officially discovered in 1772. It is possible this early name was after Tasmans ship De Zeeuwsche Nachtegaal, on the Buache map, Ile de Nachtegal is located at 43°S, 72°E, about 6 degrees north and 2 degrees east of the accepted location of Grande Terre. The islands were discovered by the French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec on 12 February 1772. The next day Charles de Boisguehenneuc landed and claimed the island for the French crown, yves de Kerguelen organised a second expedition in 1773 and arrived at the baie de lOiseau by December of the same year. On 6 January 1774 he commanded his lieutenant, Henri Pascal de Rochegude, since the end of the whaling and sealing era, most of the islands species have been able to increase their population again. In 1800, Hillsborough spent eight months sealing and whaling around the islands, during this time Captain Robert Rhodes, her master, prepared a chart of the islands. In 1825, the British sealer John Nunn and three members from Favourite, were shipwrecked on Kerguelen until they were rescued in 1827 by Captain Alexander Distant during his hunting campaign. The islands were not completely surveyed until the Ross expedition of 1840, for the 1874 transit of Venus, George Biddell Airy at the Royal Observatory of the UK organised and equipped five expeditions to different parts of the world. Three of these were sent to the Kerguelen Islands, the Reverend Stephen Joseph Perry led the British expeditions to the Kerguelen Islands. He set up his main station at Observatory Bay and two auxiliary stations, one at Thumb Peak led by Sommerville Goodridge, and the second at Supply Bay led by Cyril Corbet. Observatory Bay was also used by the German Antarctic Expedition led by Erich Dagobert von Drygalski in 1902–03, in January 2007, an archaeological excavation of this site was carried out. In 1874–1875, British, German and U. S. expeditions visited Kerguelen to observe the transit of Venus, in 1877 the French started a coal mining operation, however, this was abandoned soon after. The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis called at Kerguelen during December 1940, during their stay the crew performed maintenance and replenished their water supplies. This ships first fatality of the war occurred when a sailor, Bernhard Herrmann and he is buried in what is sometimes referred to as the most southerly German war grave of World War II
37.
Antarctic Peninsula
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The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere. At the surface, it is the biggest, most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1,300 km from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the south of Eklund Islands. They are joined together by an ice sheet. Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, lies only about 1,000 km away across the Drake Passage, the Antarctic Peninsula is currently dotted with numerous research stations and nations have made multiple claims of sovereignty. The peninsula is part of disputed and overlapping claims by Argentina, Chile, none of these claims has international recognition and, under the Antarctic Treaty System, the respective countries do not attempt to enforce their claims. Argentina has the most bases and personnel stationed on the peninsula, the first sighting of the Antarctic Peninsula by Europeans is disputed but apparently occurred in 1820. But the party did not recognize as the mainland what they thought was a covered by small hillocks. Three days later on 30 January 1820, Edward Bransfield and William Smith, with a British expedition, were the first to part of the Antarctic Peninsula. This area was later to be called Trinity Peninsula and is the extreme northeast portion of the peninsula, the next confirmed sighting was in 1832 by John Biscoe, a British explorer, who named the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula as Graham Land. The first European to land on the continent is also disputed, a 19th-century seal hunter, John Davis, was almost certainly the first. But, sealers were secretive about their movements and their logbooks were deliberately unreliable, between 1901 and 1904, Otto Nordenskiöld led the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, one of the first expeditions to explore parts of Antarctica. They landed on the Antarctic Peninsula in February 1902, aboard the Antarctica and they were later rescued by an Argentine ship. The British Graham Land Expedition between 1934 and 1937 carried out surveys and concluded that Graham Land was not an archipelago but was a peninsula. This dispute was resolved by making Graham Land the part of the Antarctic Peninsula northward of a line between Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz, and Palmer Land the part southward of that line, Palmer Land is named for the United States seal hunter Nathaniel Palmer. In Chile, the peninsula is officially named OHiggins Land, after Bernardo OHiggins, other Spanish-speaking countries call it Península Antártica, among them Argentina. It officially also refers to this as Tierra de San Martín, the first Antarctic research stations were established during World War II by a British military operation, Operation Tabarin. The 1950s saw an increase in the number of research bases as Britain, Chile. Meteorology and geology were the research subjects
38.
Marchantiophyta
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The Marchantiophyta /mɑːrˌkæntiˈɒfᵻtə/ are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle and it is estimated that there are about 9000 species of liverworts. Some of the familiar species grow as a flattened leafless thallus. Leafy species can be distinguished from the apparently similar mosses on the basis of a number of features, leafy liverworts also differ from most mosses in that their leaves never have a costa and may bear marginal cilia. Liverworts are typically small, usually from 2–20 mm wide with individual plants less than 10 cm long, however, certain species may cover large patches of ground, rocks, trees or any other reasonably firm substrate on which they occur. They are distributed globally in almost every habitat, most often in humid locations although there are desert. Some species can be a nuisance in shady greenhouses or a weed in gardens, most liverworts are small, usually from 2–20 millimetres wide with individual plants less than 10 centimetres long, so they are often overlooked. The most familiar liverworts consist of a prostrate, flattened, ribbon-like or branching structure called a thallus, liverworts can most reliably be distinguished from the apparently similar mosses by their single-celled rhizoids. Liverworts have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, with the dependent on the gametophyte. Cells in a typical liverwort plant each contain only a set of genetic information. This contrasts sharply with the pattern exhibited by all animals. In the more familiar seed plants, the generation is represented only by the tiny pollen. Another unusual feature of the life cycle is that sporophytes are very short-lived. Even in other bryophytes, the sporophyte is persistent and disperses spores over an extended period, the life of a liverwort starts from the germination of a haploid spore to produce a protonema, which is either a mass of thread-like filaments or else a flattened thallus. The protonema is a stage in the life of a liverwort. The male organs are known as antheridia and produce the sperm cells, clusters of antheridia are enclosed by a protective layer of cells called the perigonium. As in other plants, the female organs are known as archegonia and are protected by the thin surrounding perichaetum. Each archegonium has a hollow tube, the neck, down which the sperm swim to reach the egg cell
39.
Deschampsia antarctica
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Deschampsia antarctica is one of two flowering plants native to Antarctica, the other being Colobanthus quitensis. They mainly occur on the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, deschampsia antarctica has been recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the southernmost flowering plant. In 1981, a specimen was found on the Antarctic Peninsulas Refuge Islands at a latitude of 68°21′S, Antarctic flora Plants in Antarctica Pearlwort & Hairgrass picture Anatomy of hairgrass
40.
Colobanthus quitensis
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Colobanthus quitensis is one of two flowering plants found in the Antarctic region. It occurs on the edge, as well as the South Orkney Islands. It has yellow flowers and grows about 5 cm tall, with a growth habit that gives it a moss-like appearance. Due to climate change, more seeds are germinating, creating a number of seedlings. Reports indicate an increase in these plants, which have extended their ranges southward and cover more extensive areas. Deschampsia antarctica is the other native flowering plant in the region. British Antarctic Survey - Plants Pearlwort & Hairgrass picture
41.
Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra
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The islands comprising this ecoregion share a long history of isolation, both from other landmasses and each other. Wind speeds reach an average of 40 km/h while even in summer the thick cloud cover prevents much sunlight from penetrating, the Bounty Islands are small granite rocks, while the small Antipodes Islands group, the largest group the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island are volcanic in origin. Macquarie Island is the furthest south and the coldest, where present, soils are mainly boggy peats, up to 8 m deep in flat areas. None of the islands are inhabited although there are ongoing projects including a permanent base of the Australian Antarctic Division on Macquarie Island. The islands represent a transition zone between the Antarctic to the south and temperate climates to the north. Individual species include many endemics, such as a Cyathea tree fern, Macquarie Island, being colder, does not sustain any wooded plants, while the small Bounty Islands lack soils and their flora is largely restricted to algae and lichens on the rocks. There are no land mammals, nor amphibians or reptiles. The large colonies of Salvins albatross on the Bounty Islands build nests of feathers as there is no vegetation to use, there are also isolated populations of land birds that have presumably settled here, having been blown off course by ocean winds. Many of these have evolved into unique species, including two endemic parakeets on Antipodes Island, the Antipodes parakeet and Reischeks parakeet. Similarly, a proportion of the Lepidoptera and other insects of the islands have evolved into unique endemic species. A number of species have disappeared since the islands were discovered by humans, including the Macquarie Island rail, although the islands have been partially occupied at various times the habitats remain largely unspoilt. However introduced animals prey on native wildlife and graze on the plant cover while both mammals and seabirds are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing equipment. Longline fishing for tuna and trawling for squid are particularly damaging, current predators on the islands include rats and cats and these are being systematically removed while cautionary procedures are in place to prevent more alien species becoming established. All cats have now removed from Macquarie Island and there appears to have been an immediate increase in some seabird populations. All the islands are nature reserves, World Heritage Sites and a Centre of Plant Diversity, permission to land must be obtained from the Department of Conservation for the New Zealand islands and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service for Macquarie
42.
Ecoregion
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An ecoregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than an ecozone. All three of these are less or greater than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, the biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches, firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible, secondly, ecoregion boundaries rarely form abrupt edges, rather, ecotones and mosaic habitats bound them. Thirdly, most ecoregions contain habitats that differ from their assigned biome, biogeographic provinces may originate due to various barriers. Some physical, some climatic and some ocean chemical related, the history of the term is somewhat vague as it was used in many contexts, forest classifications, biome classifications, biogeographic classifications, etc. The concept of ecoregion of Bailey gives more importance to ecological criteria, while the WWF concept gives more importance to biogeography, there is significant, but not absolute, spatial correlation among these characteristics, making the delineation of ecoregions an imperfect science. Such transition zones are called ecotones, Ecoregions can be categorized using an algorithmic approach or a holistic, “weight-of-evidence” approach where the importance of various factors may vary. An example of the approach is Robert Bailey’s work for the U. S. The intended purpose of ecoregion delineation may affect the method used, according to WWF, the boundaries of an ecoregion approximate the original extent of the natural communities prior to any major recent disruptions or changes. WWF has identified 867 terrestrial ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater ecoregions across the Earth, the use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and it is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF as priorities for conservation, Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater and marine ecoregions. In this context, terrestrial is used to mean of land, WWF ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial ecoregions. The WWF effort is a synthesis of previous efforts to define. Many consider this classification to be decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives. The eight terrestrial ecozones follow the major floral and faunal boundaries, identified by botanists and zoologists, ecozone boundaries generally follow continental boundaries, or major barriers to plant and animal distribution, like the Himalayas and the Sahara
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Bounty Islands
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The Bounty Islands are a small group of 13 uninhabited granite islets and numerous rocks, with a combined area of 135 ha, in the south Pacific Ocean that are territorially part of New Zealand. They lie about 670 km east-south-east of the South Island of New Zealand, the group is a World Heritage Site. Captain William Bligh discovered the Bounty Islands en route from Spithead to Tahiti in 1788 and named them after his ship, HMS Bounty, the location of the islands were only roughly marked on charts. In early 1866 Commander W H Norman of HMCS Victoria was tasked with determining more accurately their position and he reported them as being latitude 47ˈ50 South and longitude 179ˈ00 East. Captain George Palmer, during the search for the Matoaka placed the islands at 47ˈ46ˈ24 South 178ˈ56ˈ45 East, Palmer also annexed the islands for New Zealand. During the 19th century the area were a popular hunting-ground for sealers, the islands were also searched from time to time for missing ships and crews, including those from the General Grant and the Matoaka. The Hinemoa visited the islands in March 1886 and erected a depot for marooned sailors on the largest island, captain Fairchild noted that there was no fresh water available on these islands. The depot was destroyed by the sea by the time the Stella visited the island in 1887, a new Admiralty chart 1022 was issued for the area in 1888, which took into account survey work undertaken by the Hinemoa. In November 1891 the Hinemoa returned to the islands and built a fresh provisions storage, ecologically, the islands are part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. The group is home to numbers of seabirds. The whole chain is only 5 km across at its longest axis, the total area is only 1.35 km2. The islands are at the antipodes of Bouillé-Ménard, in France, the Main Group is the largest of the three groups, and is located in the northwest of the chain. It includes the groups largest island, Depot Island, which is around 700 metres in length and 400 metres across at its widest point, proclamation and Tunnel Islands are separated from Depot Island by only a narrow cleft, and are joined to it at low tide. A small islet off the north coast of this groups Spider Island is the chains northernmost point, the Centre Group is located some 1.5 to 2 kilometres to the southeast of the Main Group, and contains three main islands, arrayed in a north-south line. A smaller islet lies immediately to the west, the northernmost of the Centre Group, Funnel Island, contains the chains highest point, at 73 metres above sea level. A further 1.5 kilometres to the east is the East Group, the largest island in this group, Molly Cap, is the groups southernmost island, and contains the chains second-highest point,70 metres above sea level. This group contains two islets and one small islet, along with several reefs and stacks, one of which is the easternmost point in the chain. Main Group, Depot Island, named for the depot on the island
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Auckland Islands
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The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying 465 kilometres south of the South Island. It includes Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, the islands have no permanent human inhabitants. Ecologically, the Auckland Islands form part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion, along with other New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. They include Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, the islands are close to each other, separated by narrow channels, and the coastline is rugged, with numerous deep inlets. Auckland Island, the island, has an approximate land area of 510 km2. It is notable for its cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600 m. Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak, Mount Raynal, Mount DUrville, Mount Easton, the southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 km. Here, the channel of Carnley Harbour separates the main island from the roughly triangular Adams Island. The channel is the remains of the crater of a volcano, and Adams Island. The main island features many sharply incised inlets, notably Port Ross at the northern end, the group includes numerous other smaller islands, notably Disappointment Island and Enderby Island, each covering less than 5 km2. Most of the islands originated volcanically, with the archipelago dominated by two 12 million year old Miocene volcanoes, subsequently eroded and dissected and these rest on older volcanic rocks 15-25 million years old with some older granites and fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks from around 100 million years ago. The archipelago features an oceanic climate. The Auckland Islands have a constant cool & mild weather year-round. Evidence exists that Polynesian voyagers first discovered the Auckland Islands, traces of Polynesian settlement, possibly dating to the 13th century, have been found by archaeologists on Enderby Island. This is the most southerly settlement by Polynesians yet known, a whaling vessel, Ocean, discovered the islands in 1806, finding them uninhabited. Captain Abraham Bristow named them Lord Aucklands on 18 August 1806 in honour of his fathers friend William Eden, Bristow worked for the businessman Samuel Enderby, the namesake of Enderby Island. The following year Bristow returned on the Sarah in order to claim the archipelago for Britain, the explorers Dumont DUrville in 1839, and James Clark Ross visited in 1839 and in 1840 respectively. Whalers and sealers set up bases, the islands becoming one of the principal sealing stations in the Pacific in the years immediately after their discovery
