Despite the cold and incredibly long nights, plants live and thrive even in the arctic expanses, sheltered from prying eyes by a thick layer of ice.
You might be surprised if we tell you that there are … forests in the Arctic. Yes, yes, the most real But not simple, but underwater! Basically, they are formed by thickets of brown seaweed, which are still poorly studied. The Canadian Arctic alone accounts for 10% of the world's total coastlines, but we still know almost nothing about the vegetation hidden under the water. This is important because, due to global climate change, large tracts of algae are gradually disappearing - however, in the Arctic, which heats up more than all other regions, heat can have a completely opposite effect.
Currently, kelp thickets can be found almost on the entire Arctic coast. The longest algae stretched as much as 15 meters, and the greatest depth at which kelp was found - 60 meters. Many researchers are surprised at how well these marine plants thrive in the harsh arctic climate. All this is possible thanks to a complex adaptation mechanism that allowed the algae to adapt to both low temperatures and long (up to six months) periods of darkness, and even to grow under a thick crust of ice. What's more: in nutrient-rich regions, they reach the highest levels of any known ecosystem on Earth!
Algae function underwater in the same way as trees on land. They create a habitat for many other organisms, shading the light and softening the force of the current. They are home to over 350 species of living things (up to 100,000 invertebrates can live on one plant), and many fish, birds and mammals are directly dependent on these "arctic forests". In addition, algae growth helps maintain coastlines by significantly reducing wave levels during storms - this slows down coastal soil erosion.
Climate change, as we have already said, cannot but affect this ecosystem. As the water heats up and the sea ice melts, an increasingly comfortable breeding environment for benthic plants emerges. Genetic analysis has shown that most modern algae again "conquered" the Arctic quite recently - only 8000 years have passed since the last ice age, and they have already massively migrated from the Atlantic Ocean and have successfully adapted to new conditions. Now, most of the algae in the Arctic survive at temperatures that are below their optimum, and therefore the heating of the water will inevitably lead to an increase in all the numerical growth rates of these marine "trees".
But not everything is as beautiful as it might seem. The melting of the permafrost and the destruction of the Arctic coastline are causing huge amounts of precipitation to enter coastal waters. They block light, which limits plant growth. Runoff from melting glaciers also increases the turbidity of the water, which makes it difficult for young algae to grow. Unfortunately, due to the inaccessibility of the region, scientists cannot say exactly how the kelp forests are changing and what to expect in the near future.
Vasily Makarov