Human impacts on cold enviornments Flashcards
Enviornmental fragility
An environment being vulnerable and at risk, as it lacks the ability to be resilient and adapt to changes, therefore long time required to recover from damage
Highly adapted ecosystems
Plants, animals must he be highly adapted to extreme weather conds to survive, esp in polar regions, plants, animals adaptations allow to survive in cold temperatures, therefore when ecosystems change, e.g. temperature inc, highly adapted species find it more diff to cope with changes
Slow nutrient cycle
Due to cold temperatures, nutrient deprived environment, cold environment’s nutrient cycle are slow, longer to break down, longer to restore if damaged, plants cannot regenerate as quickly, limiting growth, so litter of foreign objects place in environment, will take a long time to decompose which can affect plant, animal behave
Lack of biodiversity
Due to cold, unforgiving climate, only certain plants, animals thrive, meaning food chains limited, species depend on each other – if species removed/damaged, spread throughout entire food chain, affecting every aspect of ecosystem, e.g. krill declining in Antarctica, causing penguins to migrate to diff areas, affecting seal population
Human impact - tourism
Develop of ski resorts inc urbanisation, construction, displacing wildlife – 120 mil tourists visit Alps pa, humans in alpine areas disrupt ecosystems by destroying plants in snow sports and scaring wildlife away, any little dropped, any litter dropped will stay in the nutrient cycle for a long time, as decomp is slow. Tourism in other cold environments is a growing industry, esp Antarctica due to rise in ‘extreme tourism’, sea ice destruction, cruise ship crashes contribute to environmental destruction as tourist numbers inc, e.g. MS Explorer crash, 2007
Human impact - resource exploitation
Risk of overexploitation, habitat destruction as cold environment have abundance of natural resources, e.g. mineral, oils – oil exploitation = disrupts habitat through infrastructure that come with, e.g. drilling, pipelines, oil spills = fragile ecosystems cannot remove oil quickly, affecting ecosystem, e.g. 1989 oil spill of coast of Alaska when Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed – over 40 mil litres of oil spilled into ocean, over 250,000 birds, fish killed, e.g. oil spills occur if pipeline leaks, bet 1977-94 on av 30-40 spills pa from the Trans-Alaskan pipeline, running the length on Alaska, metal, mineral exploitation – damages through mining, quarrying, scaring away wildlife (currently Antarctica protected from this exploitation), mining can lead to ground, surface water contamination by chemicals used during mining or releasing materials being mined to environment, e.g. lead-zinc mine in Maarmorilik closed in 1990 but levels of lead, zinc pollution still high, mining produces both solid waste and wastewater that has to be disposed, some mines don’t have facilities required to deal with quantities of waster so water released into environment, polluting local area, scientific research – scientific tests can disrupt environment, although usually carried out sustainably; fishing, whaling – under threat from unsustainable fishing, which disrupts the food chain, sealing, whaling (current bans on almost all whaling), although whale pop still stay reduced and endangered levels from perv damage in past, overfishing inc in 20, 21 century, still reports of illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing = unsustainable, causes wide scale marine habitat damage, removes vital animals in food chain, e.g. overfishing krill removes other marine animal food sources = depleting food source for whales, penguins, bottom trawling catches fish by dragging nets along sea-bed. Disrupts ecosystems (by reducing light levels through inc turbidity), catches other species as well as target – carried out in Gulf of Alaska, Greenland Sea, Barents Sea
Human impact - pollution
Largest scale problem impact cold environments, local pollution issues associated leaving litter/oil pollution, however pollution also global issue due to combustion of fossil fuels: combustion of fossil fuels often implement positive feedback loops, heightening initial impact, i.e. warmer temperatures cause melting (impact fragile environment), permafrost melts, glaciers retreat, alpine environments thaw for longer summers – issue of melting = local floods near glaciers, carbon dioxide released into atmosphere from melting perm, albedo effect lessened due to less ice sheets, disruption to flora, fauna that adapted to environment, higher regional temperatures affects = invasive species adapted to higher temperatures grown, caused colonisation of some cold environments, migration patterns of certain animals disrupted by higher temperatures, e.g. strandings of polar bears migrating to lower latitudes in winter – disrupting food chains by migration changes, invasive species (any develop that may require additional infrastructure to be built, e.g. supp buildings, access to roads = cause damage to environment, imp access may open area up to further develop)
Recent impacts of climate change
Current impacts = melting glaciers, ice sheets part in Greenland, Antarctica causing sea levels to rise, globally most glaciers are retreating due to rising temperatures; permafrost melting, e.g. Alaska, causing buildings to collapse, ice roads (essential supply routes to remote settlements) to be usable for less time before they begin to thaw, migration patterns of some species, e.g. caribou, changing due to changes in seasons
Prospective impacts of climate change
Predicted impacts = sea level will rise further as temperatures inc, could flood low-lying coastal cold environments, melting perm could trigger positive feedback as methane is trapped in perm is released, more methane in atmos will cause temps to rise, cause further melt, release more methane etc, plants, animals adapted to cold environments may find if diff/harder to survive, range of other flora, fauna that prefer warmer temperatures may extent into cold environments
Management - tourism
Sustainable tourism (monitoring, regulation) growing indust, help reduce effect of humans have on trips to fragile cold environments, charities, e.g. WWF promoting sustainable alpine tourism to protect areas, polar extreme tourism encourages a positive management, visitors are limited in capacity so only small cruise ships can land (with 100 people at a time), cruise ships must also have a permit and regulations are very tight, e.g. shoes must be checked for foreign objects so clean, disinfect so they don’t enter ecosystem, tourist also enc to become aware of risks to cold environments, contribute to charities, protected areas some could environments are protected by law in some areas to prevent activities within them, e.g. some areas of Alaska are designated wilderness area, where development is forbidden and access in limited
Management - resource exploitation
Many cold environments are protected by law so that any natural resources cannot be over exploited, e.g. Antarctica Treaty signed by 12 countries in 1959, now 53 signatories, states Antarctica must only be used for peaceful purposes, inc science (banned mining), Madrid Protocol also banned mining, extensive fishing quotas, monitoring systems in polar environments as to protect ecosystem, and ban on all military activity
Management - climate change
Mitigation = Paris Climate Deal (COP21): aimed to limit global temps to 2 above pre-industrial levels, supp for develop countries, public interaction and awareness schemes, meet every 5 years to review, imp goals, EU-20-20-20: 20% reduct in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, commit to 20% energy coming from renewable resources, 20% inc in energy efficiency by 2020, EU sugg inc emissions reduction to 30% if major GHG producing countries also imp targets, charity campaigns, awareness: spread awareness ab cold environment fragility, charities create campaigns and petitions to make contact with decisions makers, e.g. the EU, e.g. Greenpeace = spread awareness of cold environment fragility. Future: if climate change cont, therefore demand for stricter regulations to be implemented, e.g. further develop into renewable energy lessening carbon dioxide emissions, poss further protect of oil exploitation as finite resource runs out, stricter policies to reduce pollution, flooding mitigation if sea levels rise (as if every glacier, ice sheet were to melt = 70m sea level rise)
