Topic 2 - EQ4 Flashcards
Why does a contrast have to be drawn between active and relict glacial and periglacial landscapes found in (high) polar latitudes and high altitudes?
Whereas nearly all of the former can be classified as true wilderness as they are remote, possess a harsh physical environment and carry little or no population , except for small groups of indigenous people or groups exploiting their resources short term,the latter relict areas are often more densely populated as they provide many more opportunities for economic development and employment, for example farming, forestry and tourism.
How do the qualities of the wilderness provide opportunities for spiritual refreshment?
They provide spiritual refreshment and enjoyment for many travellers and explorers who wish to experience pristine, almost wholly natural environments and almost always untouched by humans. Wildernesses have inspired an enormous range of people to write, paint and communicate their feelings and experiences - for example wilderness poets such as Robert W Service from Alaska, polar explorer John Muir or the legendary David Attenborough.
How have some areas of wilderness lost their pristine quality?
Relict environments of the summits of Snowdon or the.Cairngorms, both reached by mountain railways, only have elements of pristine quality; they have lost their innate remoteness to large quantities of tourists.
Why are wilderness areas, such as polar environments, hold value due to scientific reasons?
Environmentalists and ecologists would point this out about wilderness areas.
-They need to maintain a gene pool of wild organisms to ensure the maintenance of genetic variety.
-The need to retain wilderness so that animal communities can remain in their natural environment, for example providing sanctuary for the migratory bird and anima, communities of the Alaskan North Slope.
-To use wholly natural communities that still exist as a control system for comparison with exploited, mismanaged areas elsewhere.
What do scientists use the Arctic and Antarctic polar environments for?
Both artic and Antarctic polar environments have become ‘living labs’ for scientists. They have both similarities and significant differences in their research programmes.
How do people benefit from goods and services provided by glacial environments?
Millions of people, who live far from any mountains, benefit from a wide range of goods and services provided by glacial environments, both relict and active. These include supplies of pure mountain water, timber (usually coniferous woodland), hydroelectric power for their homes, as well as the opportunity to enjoy beautiful mountain environments such as the Alps or Himalayas for recreation and leisure.
About 8% of the worlds population live in polar and mountainous and upland areas, many of which have been glaciated in the past or still contain some glaciers albeit mostly diminishing in volume.
How do glacial environments hold economic value for farming?
Within mountainous regions in developing nations, there may be limited transport links and access to essential supplies and markets may be poor; employment opportunities can also be limited. In countries such as Nepal, Bolivia, Ethiopia, the highlands are largely inhabited by indigenous communities who gain their living from subsistence farming. In Bolivia 70% of the population lives in the High Andes, growing crops such as potatoes, quinoa and beans to feed themselves, as well as rearing llamas and alpacas, yet they earn only 30% of the country’s GDP. Almost all of the 60% of Bolivias population that live below the poverty line are indigenous Indians living in the Altiplano of the Hugh Andes. The development of internet and mobile phones, leapfrogging old technology of landlines and cables, has revolutionised their lives, providing many opportunities for cottage industries such as weaving and knitting co-operatives, and eco-tourism.
What is farming like in glaciated countries in developed areas?
In Alpine areas in developed countries, the agriculture in upland glaciated regions is primarily pastoral because of the above average precipitation, rugged terrain with steep slopes and stony, shallow soils, which together make cultivation difficult. In the truly Alpine areas transhumance is a traditional pattern of livestock management; the farming system takes advantage of the seasonal climate cycle - I’m summer animals are grazed at high altitudes on Alpine meadows, which become free from snow and provide high-quality grass. At the same time the grass in the valley bottom can be made into hay for winter feed. In the snowy winters the animals are brought down and housed near the farm houses and are fed on hay or graze the lower pastures.
How do glaciated landscapes provide economic value through forestry?
Depending on farm prices and the degree of government support systems (such as EU rural payments), hill farming is an increasing struggle in many regions and uplands are now increasingly used for forestry (silviculture). In the UK this is carried out by the Forestry Commission and private investors, with the main type of tree being non-native, quick growing conifers, such as Sitka spruce, grown for softwood timber, wood pulp and even paper. Conifers tolerate harsh climates and acidic soils that would not even be suitable for other land uses.
What is silviculture?
The planting of trees for commercial forestry
How do glacial environments provide economical value through mining and quarrying?
Glacial erosion plays an important role in removing regolith (loose overlying soil) and vegetation to expose economically valuable rocks. In many active or relict areas there are mines and quarries of mineral deposits are ores, as well as rocks such as skates as many of the glaciated mountains are made from igneous and metamorphic rocks. In lowland areas, outwash deposits from the Pleistocene Ice Sheets provide a very important source of sand and gravel for the building industry, pre-sorted by meltwater into sands and gravels to be sold as aggregates, making them very useful for making concrete.
How do glacial environments provide economic value through hydroelectricity?
HEP is a major use of water derived from glaciers. Both Norway and New Zealand derive over 90% of their electricity from this source. In most cases either a natural ribbon lake or dam and reservoir in a glaciated valley provide the HEP. Switzerland has over 500 HEP stations, producing some 70% of its electricity. Clearly HEP is a renewable ‘green’ source, although there are issues with both the reliability of the water supply and environmental concerns over damming of rivers. In mountain settlements in developing nations, such as Nepal or Bolivia, micro-hydros can revolutionise the quality of life in many villages.
Background info on Antarctica….
Antarctica was designated a continent of peace and science as a result of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and subsequent protocols. In the International Polar Year of 2008-09, the UN Environment Programme reports that 60 countries and more than 10,000 researchers took part in scientific research there costing over $1.5billion.
What are some of the planned/ongoing researches by international Antarctic Scientists?
-Understanding global change - past, present and future by looking at ice cores.
-Researching ‘life on the edge’ to explore how ecosystems cope with intensely harsh conditions.
-Investigating subglacial Lake Vostok and other lakes beneath the ice sheet.
-Developing sustainable food webs in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. In particular, looking at changing impacts on the various tropic levels such as the decline in krill, key component of the Antarctic marine food web.
-Studying the earths upper atmosphere and its links to the lower atmosphere and the earths climate - taking advantage of unpolluted atmosphere above the continent.
-Understanding how the Antarctic ice is melting, in terms of scale and pace, using satellites and field data.
How do glaciated environments provide economic value through tourism?
-The industry has seen tremendous growth in recent decades, which has bought many economic benefits to mountain regions.
-Visitors are attracted to scenery or present day and relict glacial landscapes.
-A huge range of activities are also possible: hill walking, climbing, mountaineering and skiing. These have led to whole regions capitalising on their tourist potential.
-Glaciated regions are increasingly visited for the glaciers themselves, which puts pressure on some very fragile landscape.
Why must the economic value of any mountain tourism require careful management?
The benefits require careful management so that they are not outweighed by environmental costs to the scenery and to the culture of the local people. It’s a very fine balance. So much depends on the fragility of the landscape and the nature and intensity of the economic activities.
How do glacial and periglacial landscapes hold ecological and environmental value?
They make a very significant contribution to the world’s life support systems. Approximately 75%of all the freshwater of the world is locked up in ice - so glaciers contain nearly 2% of water overall. Glacially eroded valleys in many mountainous regions for, natural hollows for water collection, forming ribbon lakes, or can be dammed for reservoirs, for example in the English Lake District.
Why are glaciers a valuable source of water for irrigation?
They produce most water in the late spring and summer, which is often the hot, dry season when other sources dry up. For example, in the USA the Arapaho Glacier currently produces about 260 million gallons of drinking water per day for the city of Boulder, Colorado, as well as irrigating huge areas of crops such as fruit and grapes. Glaciers have a very cool and beautiful image and this is used to promote sales of bottled water.
Being composed of freshwater, icebergs also offer a potential water resource, but there are numerous complications even in their potential use.
How is permafrost and tundra useful for soil carbon storage?
The extensive areas of permafrost and tundra peat are major areas for soil carbon storage . Currently the Arctic lands remain a weak carbon sink, meaning that more carbon is added each year than is lost. However, as permafrost melts as a result of positive feedback within the climate warming process, ancient carbon being released, especially via methane emissions, thus upsetting the balance in the system.
What are carbon sinks?
These are a natural or artificial reservoir that absorbs more carbon than it releases, leading to carbon accumulation.
What is biodiversity?
This is a measure of the variety of organisms present at a particular location
What is primary productivity?
This is the rate at which energy is converted by photosynthesis; it has a major influence on the level of biodiversity.
What does permafrost cause to soil’s fragility?
The presence of permafrost in most areas in the soil increases their fragility. In the lower Arctic latitudes (around 70 to 75°N) there is a continuous cover of ground vegetation, with sedges and mosses in the wetter hollows and scattered dwarf trees on the lower ridges. Elsewhere heaths, grasses and rapidly flowering plants flourish. At higher latitudes 75 to 80 °N) and higher altitudes, polar desert conditions prevail, but a small range of plants survive in favourable sheltered locations such as the purple saxifrage and arctic poppy.
How do tundra plants have to adapt?
They have to adapt to low temperatures, drying winds and snow blasts in winter blizzards. The system has low biodiversity and low primary productivity and the low nutrient content of the Arctic soils, leading to very weak nutrient cycling in dynamic equilibrium with the underlying permafrost, so any melting will have dramatic effects.
How can human activities impact permafrost?
Human activities van have dramatic impacts, both directly, such as vegetation being removed during the building of roads and infrastructure, and indirectly through pollution. Toxic chemicals/acid rain from coal mines and metal smelting in the Kola Peninsula lead to the contamination and melting of the permafrost and the formation of thermokarst conditions. A growing threat is the potential for oil spills as Arctic oilfields are developed on the Alaskan North Slope and Russian Siberia, controversially in areas of outstanding ecological value, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) where permission has just been given to drill (2015) amid huge controversy as it affects the lives of the native peoples as well as the environment and ecology.
What is an example of Tourist Activities in the Swiss alps?
Jungfrau railway to Jungfraujoch (3454m); access by road tunnel; allows all year tourism
What is an example of glacial tourism on the Mer de Glace, French Alps?
Cable car to Aiguille du Midi for glacier viewing and hiking; visit to ice cave beneath glacier.
How is there glacial tourism at the Everest base camp and ascent, Himalayas, Nepal?
Trekking to Everest base camp; huge pressure on Everest itself as permitted numbers are allowed to rise and concentrated during a relatively short season.
How is the provision of goods a value of polar ecosystems?
Fisheries - They’re important for Southern Ocean and Arctic fisheries for local and international use.
Wild foods - They allow seasonal hunting of seals for indigenous tribes; and the hunting of whales before it was banned.
Genetic resources - Important genetic resources exist on land and sea even though productivity is low; many species are endemic and some may not have been discovered yet.
Fresh water - Huge stores of fresh water in ice caps and glaciers.
How is the ecosystem service of regulation an important ecosystem service in polar ecosystems?
Carbon sequestration- Large stores of carbon are found in peat and Arctic soils
Climate regulation- Warming could release large volumes of methane and carbon dioxide. Artic and Antarctic play crucial roles in regulating the Earth’s climate by working to cool the planet (via ocean currents and atmosphere movement).
What is the value of polar ecosystems in cultural terms?
Aesthetic value - largely unspoilt pristine wildernesses to be enjoyed by travellers.
Spiritual value - Some Arctic indigenous people practise animism, giving the landscape ecosystems a unique cultural and spiritual significance.
Do glacial environments face natural risks?
Both current glaciated and relict upland regions are hazardous because of the high incidence of avalanches, rock falls, debris slides and flooding. These hazards have the capacity to develop into disasters because of the rising human vulnerability in these areas. This has resulted from increasing population of outdoor sports and adventure tourism, which out more people at risk.
Why do avalanches occur?
An avalanche risk exists when shear stress exceeds shear strength of a mass of snow located on a slope. The shear strength of a snow pack is related to its density and temperature. Snow avalanches result from two different types of snow pack failure, loose snow and slab avalanches.
What are lose snow avalanches?
These act rather like dry sand, a small amount of snow slips out of place and starts to move down slope.
What are slab avalanches?
These occur when a strongly cohesive layer of snow breaks away from a weaker underlying layer. A run of higher temperatures followed by refreezing creates ice crusts, which provide a source of instability. Slabs can be as large as 100,000m^3 and can bring down 100x the initial volume of snow and cause huge danger.
What are the social costs of avalanches?
While avalanches tend to follow well-known tracks and can often be predicted, they are nevertheless a significant hazard, usually killing around 200 people per year with most of these deaths in the Alps or the Rockies.
The 2015 Nepalese earthquake set off many ice and rock avalanches that killed some members of expeditions at Everest Base Camp.
What is a Lahar?
This is a Japanese word that describes a mixture of water, mud and rock fragments flowing down the slopes of a volcano.
What risks do Lahars hold?
Some of the most-destructive volcanic hazard events are caused by lahars. The second-deadliest eruption recorded in historic times resulted from lahars generated by the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia. Volcanic activity caused large-scale glacier melting, producing a huge lahar. It rushed down the Lagunillas Valley overwhelming the town of Armero, 50km downstream. With a mudflow deposit of 3-8m deep, it killed more than 23,000 people almost instantly.
What are glacial outburst floods?
Also known by the Icelandic term Jökulhluap. It is a powerful flood caused by the sudden discharge of a subglacial or ice moraine dammed lake. There is potential for an outburst flood whenever meltwater collects behind an ice or moraine obstruction.
What 6 ways can a glacial outburst flood be caused?
-Increased flotation of ice as water levels rise
-Overflow and melting of an ice dam - common in climate warming.
-Breakdown of an ice dam because of tectonic activity
-Irreversible overtopping of a moraine dam by large tsunami-style waves triggered by a snow/ice avalanche or landslide into a lake.
-Failure of moraine dam by slow melt of ice within it or removal of fine sediment from the moraine by underwater ‘piping’.
-Enlargement of pre-existing tunnels beneath an ice dam because of increased water pressure.
What are the threats of glacial floods to humans?
They are a huge threat to people and property in inhabited mountain valleys around the world. They may destroy the property tens or even hundreds of kilometres from their source, especially in areas with a long history of settlement, for example the Andes, European Alps and Himilayas.
Why is engineering needed in periglacial areas to deal with ice melt?
Periglacial areas experience widespread ground subsidence (downwards movement of the ground when water leaves the soils) when ground ice melts, which means that special engineering designs need to be developed when these areas, largely in northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia, are exploited for their resources.
Why are glacial outburst floods particularly frequent in Iceland?
These are particularly frequent in Iceland because of volcanic activity that generates both meltwater beneath glaciers and acts as a trigger for ice instability and the sudden release of meltwater. Heat from the Grímsvötn volcano beneath the Vatnajökull ice cap melts the ice and creates a subglacial lake with its cauldron. When this lake creates a critical size it forces its way through the subglacial tunnels and the lake drains catastrophically within hours, with total discharges between 0.5 and 3.5km squared, and every 3-6 years.
What was the eruption of Grímsvötn, Iceland 1996?
An eruption broke through the ice, sending up a huge ash column 10km high and melting a large quantity of ice. On 5th November the meltwater burst through the glacier with a massive peak discharge. It caused around US$15 million of infrastructure damage.
Do glacial environments face threats from human activity?
Yes, human activities can also degrade and damage fragile glacial and periglacial ecosystems. While continuous settlement in relict glaciated areas has traditionally been agriculturally inspired, within true polar environments this is not a feasible option. In polar lands, settlements tend to be nucleated and surrounded by bast areas of nothingness. These settlements tend to be built for resource exploitation by outsiders: for whaling, sealing and fishing, or for mining.
Furthermore, there are inevitable issues from pollution and toxic waste from these often hastily built urban areas. Also, the exploitation often leads to conflicts with the way of life of native peoples. Regular contact from outside has progressively reduced the chances for the survival of the land traditional culture groups (e.g the Sami in Lapland or Inuit in Greenland).
What is polar tourism?
This is one frequent example of a threat to glacial environments. Romanticised, over centuries, travel to the polar areas - for so long the stuff of Amundsen and Shackleton ‘daring dos’ - now increasingly represents an expensive leisure activity suitable for all, with the only barrier being cost. In the late Victorian era it was an adventure for wealthy travel seekers, but now the Antarctic welcomes around 40,000 tourists a year.
What has caused the explosion of polar tourism?
Annual figures for the increasingly accessible Arctic, where tourism has long since been relied upon by local communities, have doubled since the early 1990s, from 1 million tourists to over 2 million in 2014. Factors such as climate warming have lengthened the summer season, especially for ships with ice-strengthened hulls, and winter activities such as snowmobiling and husky sledging, as well as viewing the Northern lights, have also been developed.
Most visitors arrive by ship, sailing up the Norwegian coast to the North Cape where the recently built centre receives over 1 million visitors per year. Over 50 cruise ships visited Svalbard in 2015. The limits are currently only controlled by the limited number of feeder flights. The main issue is the huge increase in the number of landing sites (now nearly 200), which could spread the damage to uninhabited pristine areas.
What has been the affect of polar tourism on Arctic economies?
Since 1990, Iceland, Greenland and northeastern Canada have also enjoyed very strong growth rates, especially from cruise ship tourism; with Greenland up 400% since 2004. Alaska too receives over a million passengers. For middle class Americans, ‘doing Alaska’ by car or cruise ship is a rite of passage. For this reason numbers have had to be controlled at pressure points such as Denali National Park and Glacier Bay National Park.
What are the affects of wear on ecosystems from humans hiking and biking?
Damage to plants:
-Smaller leaf and stem area
-Less photosynthesis
-Less growth
-Less water drawn up through plants and nutrients
Impacts of soil compaction:
-Fewer spaces in the soil
-Less air in the soil
-Fewer soil animals
-Fewer nutrients in the soil
-Fewer seeds germinate
-More difficult for roots to grow
What is phenology?
This is the study of the timing of natural events and phenomena such as the first day snowdrops appear, in relation to climate.
Why do glaciated highland areas suffer from soil erosion?
This occurs especially when sloped are exposed, for example by clear-cut tree felling or other examples of deforestation, as this exposes the fragile ecosystem to the weather. Soil erosion is a major problem in many Andean areas as the slopes are often over-cultivated or overgrazed, largely because of pressure on the land to provide subsistence for growing populations.
What is some evidence for glacial retreat?
-Areas in Peru and Bolivia covered by glaciers has shrank 25% in the last 30 years.
-Around 95% of Himalayan glaciers are in rapid retreat; for example, the Khumbu Glacier (at the base of Everest) has retreated over 5km since 1953.
-On the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, all the glaciers have lost between 25 and 75% of their mass since 1850.
Are there examples of glaciers expanding?
Yes, and one of these is that of the maritime glaciers in Scandinavia. Here, the elements of changing precipitation have contributed to a more positive mass balance.
What positive feedback cycle is amplifying the process of glacial retreat?
Less ice -> loss of albedo -> reduced reflection -> more atmospheric warming -> more melting.
The destabilising effect of climate warming can be looked at in two very significant contexts - changes to the hydrological cycle and changes in sea level.
How are water supplies diminishing in mountainous areas?
In mountainous areas such as the Andes and Himalayas, glacial meltwater feeds rivers; changes in discharge will have knock-on effects on sediment yield and water quality.
Rivers in Asia, such as Yangtze and Ganges are all fed by Himalayan glacial meltwater. The loss of a steady supply has huge implications for the population powerhouses of China and India, both of which are emerging as superpowers with almost insatiable demands for water for development of both their people’s quality of life and their economies.
Who is dependent on glacial meltwater in Western China’s semi-desert?
The 350 million farmers are dependent on water which is supplied from the glaciers of the Tibetan plateau, an area experiencing high amounts of glacial thinning. Water shortages could affect 538 million people - some 42% of China’s people - hence the development of massive hard-engineering solutions for water security such as dams, and the South-North water transfer scheme.
What are the social implications of India’s reduction in glacial meltwater?
The reduction of glacial meltwater flowing into the Ganges-Brahmaputra system is likely to result in at least 500 million people facing water shortages, with nearly 40% of India’s irrigated land being affected.
What are the approaches to the management of glaciated landscapes?
-Do nothing
-Business as usual
-Sustainable exploitation
-Sustainable management
-Comprehensive conservation
-Total protection
What is the ‘do nothing’ approach to managing glacial landscapes?
It allows multiple economic uses to flourish. The ethos would be to allow cold environments to be exploited for whatever resources are in demand and profitable. This approach might be supported by governments at local or national level for revenues, or by some local people, for example chambers of commerce or trade unions for employment potential. It way also be used by developers such as industrialists and globalised TNCs, for example energy and mining companies.
What is the ‘business as usual’ approach to managing glacial landscapes?
This is a very similar approach to the ‘do nothing’ approach. It involves leaving the area as it currently stands, but it might include aspects of pre existing sustainability such as self-regulation on environmental issues. All TNCs have pre-existing environmental policies as part of their mission statements. With the exception of conservationists, most players are content with the status quo.
