Tag Archives: tundra

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 42: Do grass-eating Arctic geese suffer a climate mismatch?

Arctic geese like the Barnacle goose that breed on the Russian tundra and winter in the Netherlands need to increase the speed of their return trips, as the tundra spring starts weeks earlier – possibly skipping their fuelling stops on … Continue reading →

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 41: Arctic bird shrinks due to mismatch with tundra insects

Many Arctic species are shrinking in size. Say what? Yes, shrinking in size – polar bears included. Is this some clever climate adaptation (as the opposite holds true: larger body sizes are an adaptation to a cold climate), or is … Continue reading →

Alpine meadows and subalpine meadows – equally beautiful and equally threatened by decreasing snowcover

Do you like to go for a hike in the mountains on a sunny summer day? Do you then enjoy stepping out of the forest into one of those flowery meadows? In many cases this would not be an actual … Continue reading →

Boreal forest eats away at Arctic tundra biome under current climate warming

In just a few decades shrubs in the Arctic tundra have turned into trees as a result of the warming Arctic climate, creating patches of forest which, if replicated across the tundra, would significantly accelerate global warming.

Climate change may release around 3 percent of 2,000+ Gt instable soil carbon from Arctic tundra over this century – as CO2 and methane

Here´s why finding out the Gulfstream could be quite stable wouldn´t necessarily be such good news: under continued warming, the positive feedback of increased tundra peat soil CO2 and methane emissions far outweighs the negative feedback of ‘taiga creep’ and … Continue reading →