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These complex interactions between plants, animals and abiotic factors in the tundra are held together by the permafrost layer, located 450 metres (1,480 ft) under the soil. [3] However climate change is causing this crucial layer of frozen soil to melt. As a result, tundra communities are becoming unstable and basic processes are breaking down.
Arctic ecology is the scientific study of the relationships between biotic and abiotic factors in the arctic, the region north of the Arctic Circle (66° 33’N). [1] This region is characterized by two biomes: taiga (or boreal forest) and tundra. [2]
[2] [3] Climate change represents long-term changes in temperature and average weather patterns. [4] [5] This leads to a substantial increase in both the frequency and the intensity of extreme weather events. [6] As a region's climate changes, a change in its flora and fauna follows. [7]
Papaver radicatum (arctic poppy), a flowering plant of the Arctic tundra follows the sun around the sky during the 24-hour daylight of summer north of the Arctic Circle. Changing climate conditions are amplified in polar regions and northern high-latitude areas are projected to warm at twice the rate of the global average. [1]
The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) is a long-term international collaboration of researchers examining the responses of arctic and alpine plants and ecosystems to climate change. [1] Researchers measure plant responses to standardized, small-scale passive warming, snow manipulations, and nutrient additions.
From giant holes in Siberia to legions of beavers in Alaska, the Arctic is changing rapidly and accelerating the climate crisis across the planet.
The abiotic factors that environmental gradients consist of can have a direct ramifications on organismal survival. Generally, organismal distribution is tied to those abiotic factors, but even an environmental gradient of one abiotic factor yields insight into how a species distribution might look.
It differs from most other hypotheses in not postulating an upper limit to species richness set by various abiotic and biotic factors, i.e., it is a nonequilibrium hypothesis assuming a largely non-saturated niche space. It does accept that many other factors may play a role in causing latitudinal gradients in species richness as well.