When covered by ice, the lake seems to be quiet and motionless. However, although we cannot see it, the water is still moving under the ice. This movement is called circulation and is caused when water masses of different temperatures — and therefore of different densities — meet. In spring, when sunlight penetrates through the ice and the lake shoreline is heated by the surrounding land, the temperature difference between water in different parts of the lake becomes large, and the circulation therefore becomes especially intense.
Epiphytic lichens indicate snow depth
Please stay on the path to protect the sensitive vegetation and the biocrust.
Differing snow cover
Snow does not cover the land evenly. Snow depth varies greatly, especially in places like Kilpisjärvi where both fells and mountain birch forests are found in a relatively small area, and slopes of varying steepness face different compass directions. Wind notably affects snow distribution. In places where the wind accelerates, snow grains erode from the surface of the snow cover, and thin and wind-packed snow cover forms. Wind transports the snow. In places where the wind slows down, the transported snow accumulates as deep snowbanks. Wind, along with topography, forest canopy, and shrubs or other ground vegetation affects how much snow accumulates on the ground in any specific location. In fell environments, places with some ground vegetation have higher surface roughness than places without any. More snow accumulates in places with higher surface roughness.
Avalanches
Avalanches are a natural phenomenon, where a large mass of snow moves rapidly down a slope. The release of an avalanche depends mainly on the inner structure of the snow cover: thickness, continuity, and strength of the snow layers. A change in weather or the weight of a skier can trigger an avalanche when conditions are right.
Birds shifting upwards
Long-term climate changes cause changes to species distribution areas. By changing their ranges, birds are trying to follow their optimal climatic conditions, which are also on the move due to climate change. For instance, bird species have been shown to shift their abundances and distribution ranges in Finland by about 1.5 kilometres northwards per year.
Clean air
Have you ever wondered what is in the air around you, in the air you breathe? If you were to make a small box that is 1 cm long, 1 cm wide, and 1 cm tall and hold it in front of you, then this box would contain approximately 24 000 000 000 000 000 000 molecules. 78% of these molecules are dinitrogen, which is highly non-reactive, and 21% are dioxygen, which is vital for most of Earth’s life forms. The last percentage of air, approximately 240 000 000 000 000 000 molecules in your 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm box, consists of millions and billions of different molecules and aerosol particles.
Plant odour affects clouds
Nearly all living vegetation emits organic molecules, as does the decomposition of dead vegetation. Individual plant species emit their own unique combination of compounds — a bit like a fingerprint — and many of these molecules can be smelled. This is why roses always smell like roses and not, for example, like pine trees, and vice versa. Environmental parameters, such as temperature, light, and water availability, and the phenological status of plants, for example leaf age and maturity, influence how many organic molecules are being emitted. This is also one reason why plants sometimes smell more strongly than at other times.
Saana labyrinths
Do not build stone cairns or other stone structures, nor dismantle any that you encounter!
Nature affects your well-being
The terrain’s been going up, up, up for some time now, and it will continue going uphill for some time longer before you reach the summit. It’s tough and you may have begun feeling tired. But interacting with nature — as you are now — benefits not only your physical health, but also your psychological well-being and cognitive performance, and it even provides social and spiritual benefits! So keep going — you can do this!
Biocrusts - The living skin of the fells
Please stay on the path to protect the sensitive vegetation and the biocrust.
Shrubification
Vegetation in the treeless tundra biome is small statured but diverse, consisting of various shrubs, grasses, sedges, mosses, and lichens. They are all adapted to the cold, snowy, and windy conditions with short growing seasons. However, rapid Arctic climate warming over the past few decades is shifting the tundra vegetation. Shrubs and trees in particular are growing taller, wider, and taking over new habitats that were previously too cold for them, in a process called shrubification.
