Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 10.1
Alpine soils of the world underlain by permafrost. Numbered locations:
1
= Coast
Range;
2
= Rocky Mtns. (USA);
3
= Rocky Mtns. (Canada);
4
= Brooks Range;
5
= Cascade Range
(Canada, USA);
6
=Appalachian Mtns.;
7
=Andes Mtns.;
8
= Fennoscandian mtns.;
9
= Icelandic
mtns;
10
= Greenlandic mtns;
11
= Svalbard mtns.;
12
= European Alps;
13
= Pyrenees;
14
= Carpathian Mtns.;
15
= Urals;
16
= Caucasus;
17
= Qinghai-Tibet Plateau;
18
= Altai Mtns.;
19
= Pamir-Tien Shan Mtns.;
20
=Yablonai-Sayan-Stanovoi Mtns.,
21
= Japanese
Alps;
22
= Southern Alps, New Zealand
1-2 m of the ground surface in alpine regions (Bockheim and Munroe
2014
). At the
other extreme, MAAT values as low as −10 °C have been recorded in mountains of
Alaska, Fennoscandia, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Table
10.2
). The mean annual
precipitation of areas with mountain permafrost ranges from 250 mm/year for the
Yukon Territory of Canada and parts of the central Asian mountains to over 2,000 mm/
year in the European Alps. Annual snowfall ranges from a meter to more than 20 m,
although wind redistribution can produce signifi cant local differences in snow depth.
10.2.2
Biota
Many alpine plants are circumpolar, meaning that they occur throughout the Arctic
and mountains at lower latitudes, including Europe, Asia, and North America.
There are a large number of species that are circumpolar, including
Pedicularis
verticillata, Myosotis alpestris, Pyrola grandifl ora, Carex bigelowii, Vaccinium
vitis-idaea, V. ulignosum, Arctostaphylos alpina, and Dryas octopetala
(Körner
1999
). According to Bliss (
1979
) there are fewer vascular plants in the Southern
