PART IX — TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS 



islands have a tundra more nearly 

 resembling that of the arctic, but 

 containing fewer types of flowering 

 plants. There are only two species of 

 flowering plants native to the Ant- 

 arctic Peninsula. 



The antarctic tundra has been less 

 studied than that of the arctic. How- 

 ever, as a result of the Antarctic 

 Treaty and the international scientific 

 cooperation of the past ten years, 

 great strides have been made in gath- 

 ering details about the plants and 

 their environments. 



Major works have been written or 

 are in the process of being written 

 about flowering plants in all parts of 

 the arctic (Siberia, Scandinavia, and 

 central Canada). Work on the non- 

 flowering plants is less extensive but 

 is also progressing. A good begin- 

 ning has been made in the under- 

 standing of the plants that occur in 

 the antarctic as well. Major flora of 

 the various plant groups — lichens, 



mosses, and algae — will probably 

 be reported on in the near future. 

 The flora of the sub-antarctic islands 

 are also being studied, and, again, 

 reports on major flora are likely to 

 appear relatively soon. 



Thus, it can be said that much of 

 the basic investigation about polar- 

 region plant life is done or soon will 

 be. This cannot be said about the 

 interrelations among the plants and 

 animals and their environments. Tliis 

 is the needed area for study. 



Needed Scientific Activity 



Although, as noted, we know a 

 fair amount about the distribution 

 of the plants and animals in the 

 tundra, we lack detailed information 

 about all of the interrelationships. 

 Ecosystem modeling, a way of math- 

 ematically taking into account the 

 various factors of the environment 



and their interrelationships with the 

 living organisms, requires such de- 

 tailed information for each com- 

 ponent of the model. Once a 

 meaningful model has been made, 

 predictions can be soundly based. 

 (See Figure IX-16) 



The Tundra Biome study group of 

 the International Biological Program 

 has proposed that such things as 

 productivity of the plants and of the 

 whole tundra be investigated. Multi- 

 disciplinary studies of the sort that 

 have been done at Cape Thompson 

 and Kodiak Island in Alaska would 

 be valuable in providing a better 

 understanding of the tundra ecosys- 

 tem. There is need to study the 

 ecological interrelationships and the 

 specific changes that are being 

 brought about bv planned environ- 

 mental change. Only then will it 

 be possible to predict meaningful 

 changes that are likely to occur when 

 other environmental changes are 

 made. 



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