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Damage and Recovery of Tundra Vegetation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Patrick J. Webber  and
Jack D. Ives
Patrick J. Webber
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and Department of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, U.S.A.
Jack D. Ives
Affiliation:
Director, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and Professor, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, U.S.A.
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Extract

This paper makes a series of broad recommendations concerning the understanding of damage and recovery of tundra vegetation. It deals primarily with arctic vegetation and with principles rather than specific recommendations or instructions for restoration. Actual procedures for restoration or revegetation, although practised, are still in their experimental stages.

Despite this lack of established methods in tundra vegetation restoration, much can be done to help offset some of the worst effects of the present surge of economic development that is occurring in certain sectors of the Arctic. First, a rational assessment of types and extent of damage that is likely to accrue from different kinds and degrees of impact should be attempted, based on existing experience and theory. This should be accompanied by similar assessments of degrees and rates of recovery.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1978 , pp. 171 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1978

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