Issues: Global Warming

GARDEN RESEARCH, Toolik Lake, Alaska.

In this photo, a biologist monitors the growth rate of native tundra plants. After building greenhouses to test plant growth in an artificially warm environment, biologists then track plants on the open tundra to see which survive and spread and which are pushed out by encroaching species. These shifts in plant growth affect local animal populations that depend on specific plants for survival. If these herbivores disappear or move in search of food, so too will their predators and the subsistence hunters who rely on them

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All photos © Gary Braasch