or is a

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

that is located on the island of Seiland in

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The glacier is located in the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Hammerfest and Alta. The glacier is located inside Seiland National Park, about southeast of the mountain Seilandstuva.

Location and topography

Seilandsjøkelen is a

located in the eastern part of Seiland National Park in

, northern Norway. It lies near the administrative boundaries of Alta, Hammerfest, and the former Kvalsund Municipality. The glacier occupies the central

highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

plateau of the island of Seiland, surrounded by rugged mountain ridges and steep valleys. The surrounding terrain includes extensive blockfields, glacial

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

s, and a number of high-elevation lakes. According to a vegetation and

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

survey commissioned by the Seiland National Park board in 2019, the area immediately east of Seilandsjøkelen consists of large expanses of rocky, windswept uplands interspersed with patches of snowbed and

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

vegetation.

Ecological importance

The glacier and its adjacent uplands support a variety of high-mountain ecosystems, several of which are listed as threatened in the Norwegian Red List for habitat types. These include snowbed communities— (late-melting depressions with cold-adapted vegetation), (sparsely vegetated rocky slopes retaining snow), and (snowbed areas fed by prolonged

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

seepage)—as well as extensive blockfields () characteristic of

periglacial Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing and freezing, very often in areas of permafrost. The meltwater may refreeze in ice wedg ...

environments. The report identified numerous occurrences of red-listed

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Ti ...

s in these habitats, such as (''

Ranunculus glacialis ''Ranunculus'' is a List of the largest genera of flowering plants, large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is d ...

'') and ('' Ranunculus nivalis''), both of which are indicative of cold, moist, late-melting areas.

Lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

-rich

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most p ...

s and moist

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

-dominated slopes in the vicinity of Seilandsjøkelen also support rare species including ('' Saxifraga tenuis'') and alpine forms of '' Alectoria'' and '' Cladonia''. These habitats form an important ecological refuge for

alpine flora Alpine flora may refer to: * Alpine tundra, a community of plants that live at high altitude * Alpine plant Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different pl ...

and

, especially as similar environments decline elsewhere in the region.

Climate and environmental threats

The habitats surrounding Seilandsjøkelen are considered vulnerable to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, particularly due to the upward migration of the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

and reduced duration of snow cover. The glacier itself is classified as part of the "snow and ice" habitat type, which is listed as near threatened in Norway. Rising temperatures are expected to accelerate glacial retreat, reduce

snowpack Snowpack is an accumulation of snow that compresses with time and melts seasonally, often at high elevation or high latitude. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as they melt, sometimes leading to flooding. Snow ...

, and disrupt the

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

of meltwater-fed systems. The report suggests that some red-listed plant species may find temporary refuge in these cold, high-elevation zones, but long-term viability is uncertain. Moreover, changes in snowmelt patterns may reduce the extent and persistence of moisture-dependent ecosystems such as (a specific type of snowbed habitat) and alpine springs (), which are already limited in extent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seilandsjokelen Glaciers of Finnmark Alta, Norway Hammerfest