T6.1 Ice sheets, glaciers and perennial snowfields

T6. Polar/alpine (cryogenic) biome

T6

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/T6.1

Brief description

Found in polar regions and on high mountains, ice sheets, glaciers and perennial snowfields make up around 10% of the earth’s surface. They have very low productivity and diversity in extreme cold conditions. Nutrients are in short supply, and generally come from glacial debris, seawater or guano. At the base of simple foodwebs, micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses and algae are the dominant life forms, although itinerant vertebrates make important contributions to nutrient and carbon subsidies. Micro-organisms are often dispersed by wind, and accumulate organic matter at the surface, fuelling microbial activity both at the surface, and below the ice. Productivity is restricted to summer months, when migratory birds and mammals visit.

Key features

Permanent, dynamic ice cover where extreme cold limits productivity and diversity, biota dominated by microorganisms, migratory/overwintering birds may occur.

Overview of distribution

Polar regions and high mountains in the  western Americas, central Asia, Europe, and New Zealand.

Map description

Areas of permanent snow where identified from consensus land-cover maps (Tuanmu et al. 2014), glacier inventories (Raup et al 2007; GLIMS and NSIDC 2005-2018) and the Antarctic Land Cover map for 2000 (Hui et al. 2017). A composite map was created at 30 arc seconds spatial resolution in geographic projection..

Map code and version: T6.1.web.map v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): DA Keith; A Terauds; AMB Anesio.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-31): DA Keith; A Terauds; AMB Anesio.
  • v2.0 (2020-06-15): DA Keith; A Terauds; AMB Anesio.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): DA Keith; A Terauds.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: T6.1.IM.alt, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation (code: T6.1.web.map, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Web navigation: discarded (code: T6.1.web.alt, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: T6.1.web.orig, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: T6.1.web.mix, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: T6.1.IM.mix, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: T6.1.IM.orig, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Anesio AM, Laybourn-Parry J (2012) Glaciers and ice sheets as a biome. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 27, 219-225. DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2011.09.012
  • Anesio AM, Lutz S, Chrismas NAM. Benning LG (2017) The microbiome of glaciers and ice sheets npj Biofilms Microbiomes 3, 10

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line
  • NA
  • Hui, F., J. Kang, Y. Liu, X. Cheng, P. Gong, F. Wang, Z. Li, Y. Ye, and Z. Guo. 2017. AntarcticaLC2000: The new Antarctic land cover database for the year 2000. SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences 60: 686-696. doi: 10.1007/s11430-016-0029-2.
  • Raup, B.H.; A. Racoviteanu; S.J.S. Khalsa; C. Helm; R. Armstrong; Y. Arnaud (2007) The GLIMS Geospatial Glacier Database: a New Tool for Studying Glacier Change Global and Planetary Change 56:101–110 DOI:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.07.018
  • Tuanmu, M.-N. and W. Jetz (2014) A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modeling Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(9):1031–1045 DOI:10.1111/geb.12182

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎