Alaska Permafrost

When thinking of Alaska, everyone thinks of snow all year round. But they do have months without snow and freezing temperatures. From September to April, these are usually the months with snow and freezing temperatures. In south central Alaska where Anchorage is located, major city in Alaska, winter temperatures can go as low -25 degrees Fahrenheit and the summer it can go as high up as 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Alaska has many kinds of landscape. There’s flat terrain, mountains, and hill country. Denali is a major national park where the tallest mountain in north America is located. Alaska is surrounded by the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, and

The arctic Tundra is normally around 10 to 29 degrees fahrenheit. Rainfall may vary in different regions of the arctic. Yearly precipitation, including melting snow, is 6 to 10 inches. Soil is formed slowly. The biggest threat to the Tundra is global warming. Many scientists believe global warming caused by greenhouse gases may eliminate Arctic regions, including the tundras there, forever. Another concern is that about one third of the worlds soil-bound carbon is in the tundra permafrost. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions by switching to alternative energy uses is key to protecting Earth's tundra habitats. The Tundra is located at the top of the earth by the North Pole. Switch to alternative energy

In the northern part of the earth and the upper slopes of all mountains all over the world, a unique biome called tundra exists. Tundra is one of the coldest and harshest biomes of the world. The winters are long and cold, and the summers are short and cool. Tundra is far from the equator; therefore, Tundra soil is generally poor in nutrients. Since the biome is covered in snow throughout the year, the arctic tundra doesn’t seem like a place where plants and animals can survive. Yet, plants and animals are able to survive, thanks to their special adaptations. In fact, it isn’t the freezing temperature that they fear; it is us, human. Today, tundra faces lots of threats and problems because of human. One of the major problem is Global

The article “Cold warriors,” Gregoire (2008) indicates that climate change leads to environmental issues and melting ice, and the scientists’ researches point out climatic issues in Canada. The author comes up with a point that everyone is responsible for protecting the environment because people around the world are bearing negative effects due to climate degradation. For example, residents in Grise Fiord and Inuit notice a huge differences, the landscape is becoming warmer, softer and unpredictable. Moreover, a greater risk of environmental pollution is caused by climate change. In addition to changes in environment, shrinking glaciers, earlier ice breakup, later freeze-up and less snow caused by warmer temperature bring double-edged effects

"Polar Bears, Ringed Seals, and the Complex Consequences of Climate Change" is an article written by Mary Bates who earned her PhD studying Bat echolocation. She works for an American Association for the Advancement of Science. In this article Mary talks about how Climate change is impacting different species at different rates. Here, she focuses on sea-ice dependent animals such as Polar Bears and Ringed Seals at Arctic. She explains on how these animals are dependent upon the sea-ice for living. The Arctic is warming at a rate three times greater than the global average, and that the sea ice coverage is declining rapidly. She also talks about Hamilton's study on sea-ice dependent animals. Before the melting of sea ice the Polar bears used

The facts are that the rate that permafrost regions release any stored carbon dioxide depends on how fast the organic material in the frozen ground decomposes. That also depends on what the dirt is made up of, if the soil is well drained, for instance, it releases carbon as carbon dioxide, while if it is poorly drained, it could release a more dangerous form of carbon turned into methane gases. Scientists believe that some of the frozen permafrost regions have been frozen for more than 11,000 years, while others have unthawed at various other

Global warming persists as one of the world’s biggest issues today that is causing several problems that include the world’s severe climate and rising sea levels while possibly being the main cause as to why all of mankind could go extinct. This global crisis is known as the steady increase in the world’s average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans that are proven to be permanently changing the world’s climate (Live Science, 2014). This phenomenon is strongly evident as Earth’s temperature has also increased by 2 degrees Celsius since the last century. As a result of this, Canadian glaciers are melting at a higher rate of 2 to 3 feet than of what it was a decade before (Lerner, 2014). All astoundingly happening while the Artic Canadian permafrost has begun to melt (Davidson,2015). The state of this issue in Canada does not seem to be improving as validated through both the scientific evidence as well as the blatant and irrefutable observable evidence.

At the present rate of global warming most of the frozen portions of the Arctic may disappear by the end of this century.

"Climate change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system that persists for several decades or longer" (Montgomery, 2015). Climate change (or global warming) can be caused by a natural progress such as sun 's radiations and volcanoes, or it can be caused by human 's actions such as land use, deforestation, and pollution. (Hardy, 2003).This phenomenon not only affects the environment, but it also affects human lives. Alaska is the largest state in the United States. It includes lands on both sides of the Arctic Circle. Sixteen national wildlife refuges are home to a great variety of flora and fauna. In the past 60 years. The Alaska 's environment changed drastically; the climate is warming up as twice as much in comparison to all the other states. This essay will discuss firstly the climate change in the Alaskan environment. Then it will highlight the changes in the ocean and costs, the effects that global warming is having on Alaska 's natives and the melting permafrost. It will then finally address who is responsible for this effects and some measures that can be taken.

Alaska is an ever changing place. It is known for its massive area, abundance of coast line, its rocky peaks and low lying mountains, arctic tundra, and boreal forests. It has one of the lowest populations of the United states with having less than a million people living in it, but it is the largest state with having an area just over 650,000 square miles. Alaska boasts some of the most extreme temperatures in the Americas, with extreme lows in the northern region, to moderate and even high temperatures in the interior. The many different regions of Alaska provide varying climates and ecosystems throughout them. Just as the climate is so varied the ecoregions and more so the ecosystems of Alaska are just as varied. There are three major

The Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) is a multi-year mission conducted by NASA to obtain detailed calculations of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane from thawing permafrost by probing deep into the frozen landscape of Alaska. For the first time, NASA scientists have been accurately recording these emission sources and rates using highly sensitive airborne sensors mounted on NASA government aircraft. NASA scientists expect to make unprecedented accurate estimates of the extent of Arctic carbon cycling impacts to the Arctic atmosphere and the local Alaskan ecology. The data results of this mission will help both NASA and global scientists better understand how the estimated rate of greenhouse gas emissions affect the rise in temperature and potential impact of Earth’s future climate near and long-term.

It contains an expanse of tundra with many marshes and lagoons with rivers situated between foothills of the Brooks Range and the wide, icy waters of the Beaufort Sea. Environmentalists said that this area “is the most biologically productive part of the Arctic Refuge for wildlife and is the center if wildlife activity.” The importance of these resources is not measurable. The Arctic is home to such animals as caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, musk oxen, whales, wolves and snow geese. This area is full of wildflowers and contains water of excellent, unpolluted quality and quantity. The Arctic Ocean costal plain is an area critical to the survival of many birds and mammals (‘Alaska Wild’).

One of the most noteworthy effects of the much-debated global climate change is the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The year-round sea ice of the past can no longer endure long enough to withstand the warming summer climates, and, as a result, the amount of old, thicker sea ice has dwindled in the last 25 years. The younger, thinner seasonal ice is now superseding these numbers, signifying a great danger to the Arctic’s sensitive ecosystem, as well as the global climate.

Kolbert provides compelling evidence of Global Warming in the Arctic from her hands-on experience accompanying scientists in the field. From the storm surges that threaten the Alaskan village of Sarichef to the warming (and even melting!) permafrost, the evidence all point to the irrefutable fact that the planet is warming up extraordinarily fast. In fact, the Keeling Curve gives us a rather explicit visualization of how greenhouse gases levels (CO2, in particular) are rising at unprecedented rates.

The Arctic is global warming’s canary in the coal mine. It is a highly sensitive area which is profoundly affected by the changing climate. The average temperature in the Arctic is rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world (nrdc.org). Because of this, the ice cap is getting thinner, melting away, and rupturing. Here is an example of this; the largest ice block in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3000 years before it started cracking in 2000 (nrdc.org) By 2002, the Ward Hunt has cracked completely through and had started breaking into smaller pieces. The melting ice caps are affecting the earth and its inhabitants in many ways. In this paper, the following concepts and subjects will be