Life expansion in Sorkapp Land, Spitsbergen, under the current climate warming

Abstract

Terrestrial life response to climate warming in Sorkapp Land after the Little Ice Age is described. Plant succession starts in the areas abandoned by glaciers and continues in the areas which have been outside glaciers. Continuous tundra becomes denser in many places of the west and south. A denser tundra attracts animal species feeding on plants. Vegetation of non-glaciated areas in the north-east is very sparse until now in spite of persisting development. Scarce fauna of the NE Sorkapp Land consists mainly of several bird species feeding on the sea. They are of great importance in plant and soil development, delivering organic matter to the land by fertilizing. Persisting warming leads an increase of the landscape heterogenity.