Tundra+Conservation

Tundra Conservation Tasneem S., Eli H., Zac H. Humanity has created lots of pollution over the years of advances in new technology.The burning of fossil fuels is warming up the planet, and gradually melting the ice. Many animals in the tundra depend on the ocean being frozen, such as the polar bear. The polar bear hunts for food on the ice. If the ocean is not solid enough to support the polar bear, it can't get to it's food source, and then it will die. If one whole species goes extinct because of this, it can affect the entire ecosystem tremendously. Th ese are the negative effects humans have on the tundra. On the other hand, humans do have a positive effect on the tundra. Building preserves is a way humans have helped tundra ecosystems and organisms as well as other problems that have happened. The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is a national park located in Alaska. This park is helping the tundra recover from what negative harm that has happened. It protects arctic plant communities, keeps track of lava flows that could melt the arctic ice, volcanic ash explosions, and coastal formations. In addition to this, the park works on preserving habitats for various species of migratory birds, marine mammals, brown/grizzly bears, moose, and wolves.

Many problems have risen in the tundra; one of them being hunting the endangered species that live there. One over-hunted animal of the tundra is the caribou. The herds were almost wiped out by the 1950's. This would have been a serious problem, because so many other organisms depend on caribou, and they would have died, too. Luckily, many northern countries have passed laws limiting the hunting going on in the tundra. This is good news for the caribou, and they are making a recovery, but very slowly. For now, the problem is solved, but we can't depend on it staying that way. Other ways people could solve this problem includes the option of building more national parks, which can help preserve the animals and the nature surrounding them.

Today Climate Change is becoming much more noticeable all over the world but in the tundra the change is catastrophic. Over the past few years that temperature in the north has risen more then 4 degrees Celsius. The temperature has increased enough to allow larger plants to grow, including trees. As the vegetation thickens the surface of the tundra darkens. As you know dark things absorb heat, so as the Arctic vegetation grows the hotter the earth gets. Scientists have noticed the warming in the north as well as the tundra giving more nitrous oxide and methane then thought before. Scientists fear if the permafrost in the Arctic melts vasts amounts of carbon into the atmosphere warming the earth was again. This in turn will create a gobal warming cycle throughout the world as well has ruining valuable ecosystems and threatening thousands of species. Scientists know this can be prevented so they are raising money to preserve land areas so humans can't do more to harm the tundra, then research will be conducted to see what we can to about this problem.



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