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52-402: Due to harsh winds, frequent cloud cover, and cold temperatures, vegetation is mostly tundra (grasses, mosses, berries, low-lying flowering plants) at lower elevations. The highest point is Mount Moffett , near the northwest end of the island, at an elevation of 3,924 feet (1,196 m). It is snow covered the greater part of the year. Adak is its largest and principal city. The word Adak is from

104-553: A temperate grassland , restricting southern tundra to coastal Antarctica and its islands. The flora and fauna of Antarctica and the Antarctic Islands (south of 60° south latitude) are protected by the Antarctic Treaty . Alpine tundra does not contain trees because the climate and soils at high altitude block tree growth. The cold climate of the alpine tundra is caused by the low air temperatures, and

156-457: A Native association (at the regional and/or village level) received 100 shares of stock in the respective corporation. In 2006, the 109th Congress passed S.449 which amended ANCSA, and allowed for shares to be more easily issued to those who had missed the enrollment, or were born after the enrollment period by reducing the requirement for voting from a majority of shareholders to a majority of attending shareholders at corporation meetings. During

208-757: A local climate in which at least one month has an average temperature high enough to melt snow (0 °C (32 °F)), but no month with an average temperature in excess of 10 °C (50 °F). The cold limit generally meets the EF climates of permanent ice and snows ; the warm-summer limit generally corresponds with the poleward or altitudinal limit of trees, where they grade into the subarctic climates designated Dfd , Dwd and Dsd (extreme winters as in parts of Siberia ), Dfc typical in Alaska, Canada, mountain areas of Scandinavia , European Russia , and Western Siberia (cold winters with months of freezing). Despite

260-473: A national forest. Adagdak and Mount Moffett volcanoes are located on Adak. The igneous rock type adakite is named after Adak. Tundra In physical geography , tundra ( / ˈ t ʌ n d r ə , ˈ t ʊ n -/ ) is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine tundra , and Antarctic tundra. Tundra vegetation

312-485: Is a risk of wildfire, such as the 1,039 km (401 sq mi) of tundra which burned in 2007 on the north slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska. Such events may both result from and contribute to global warming. Carbon emissions from permafrost thaw contribute to the same warming which facilitates the thaw, making it a positive climate change feedback . The warming also intensifies Arctic water cycle , and

364-432: Is about 54.8 inches (1,390 mm). October to January are the wettest months due to especially frequent and intense mid-latitude cyclonic storms, while May to July represent markedly drier months; thunderstorms, common in mid-latitude continental areas, are virtually unknown here. November is the average wettest month, while July is the average driest month. Average snowfall is 100 inches (2,500 mm), falling primarily on

416-404: Is an excerpt of the relevant portion: The thirteen regional corporations created under ANCSA are: There are over 200 village corporations, corresponding to the list of villages published in the text of ANCSA. Most corporations serve a single village, although some smaller villages have consolidated their corporations over the years. AFOGNAK NATIVE CORPORATION The Afognak Native Corporation

468-453: Is characterized by plants that grow close to the ground, including perennial grasses , sedges , forbs , cushion plants , mosses , and lichens . The flora is adapted to the harsh conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation, and a short growing season. Tundra climates ordinarily fit the Köppen climate classification ET , signifying

520-430: Is composed of dwarf shrubs , sedges , grasses , mosses , and lichens . Scattered trees grow in some tundra regions. The ecotone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline. The tundra soil is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus . The soil also contains large amounts of biomass and decomposed biomass that has been stored as methane and carbon dioxide in

572-630: Is light, evaporation is also relatively minimal. During the summer, the permafrost thaws just enough to let plants grow and reproduce, but because the ground below this is frozen, the water cannot sink any lower, so the water forms the lakes and marshes found during the summer months. There is a natural pattern of accumulation of fuel and wildfire which varies depending on the nature of vegetation and terrain. Research in Alaska has shown fire-event return intervals (FRIs) that typically vary from 150 to 200 years, with dryer lowland areas burning more frequently than wetter highland areas. The biodiversity of tundra

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624-566: Is listed as "Construction and Engineering" services. The Afognak Native Corporation has approximately 900 shareholders and pays over $ 12 million in dividends annually. The Afognak Native Corporation controls over 160,000 acres of land in the Kodiak Archipelago and the lands form the core of financial success of the corporation. The federal Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (ISDA) gave self-autonomy to both Native Indian tribal governments and to ANCs. In

676-698: Is low: 1,700 species of vascular plants and only 48 species of land mammals can be found, although millions of birds migrate there each year for the marshes. There are also a few fish species. There are few species with large populations. Notable plants in the Arctic tundra include blueberry ( Vaccinium uliginosum ), crowberry ( Empetrum nigrum ), reindeer lichen ( Cladonia rangiferina ), lingonberry ( Vaccinium vitis-idaea ), and Labrador tea ( Rhododendron groenlandicum ). Notable animals include reindeer (caribou), musk ox , Arctic hare , Arctic fox , snowy owl , ptarmigan , northern red-backed voles , lemmings ,

728-404: Is similar to polar climate . Alpine tundra is generally better drained than arctic soils. Alpine tundra transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone (the treeline ) are known as Krummholz . Alpine tundra can be affected by woody plant encroachment . Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide. The flora of the alpine tundra

780-566: The Aleut word adaq , which means "father". Adak Island has been the home to Aleut peoples since antiquity. Russian explorers in the 18th century also visited the island but made no permanent settlements. During World War II , the Imperial Japanese Army took control of two of the westernmost Aleutian Islands, Attu and Kiska , in the incorporated territory of Alaska , the first foreign enemy to occupy American soil since

832-586: The Kerguelen Islands . Most of Antarctica is too cold and dry to support vegetation, and most of the continent is covered by ice fields or cold deserts. However, some portions of the continent, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula , have areas of rocky soil that support plant life. The flora presently consists of around 300–400 species of lichens, 100 mosses, 25 liverworts , and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algae species, which live on

884-654: The United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) which settled land and financial claims made by the Alaska Natives and provided for the establishment of 13 regional corporations to administer those claims. Under ANCSA the state was originally divided into twelve regions, each represented by a "Native association" responsible for the enrollment of past and present residents of

936-700: The War of 1812 . The Japanese also attacked the American base at Dutch Harbor by air. The Japanese campaign coincided with the more well-known Battle of Midway . In response, the United States military began a campaign to oust the Japanese. Since the nearest U.S. military presence was in Cold Bay, Alaska , the U.S. began to construct bases in the western Aleutian Islands from which to launch operations against

988-472: The mosquito , and even polar bears near the ocean. Tundra is largely devoid of poikilotherms such as frogs or lizards. Due to the harsh climate of Arctic tundra, regions of this kind have seen little human activity, even though they are sometimes rich in natural resources such as petroleum , natural gas , and uranium . In recent times this has begun to change in Alaska , Russia, and some other parts of

1040-476: The permafrost , making the tundra soil a carbon sink . As global warming heats the ecosystem and causes soil thawing, the permafrost carbon cycle accelerates and releases much of these soil-contained greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, creating a feedback cycle that changes climate. The term is a Russian word adapted from the Sámi languages . Arctic tundra occurs in the far Northern Hemisphere , north of

1092-477: The taiga belt. The word "tundra" usually refers only to the areas where the subsoil is permafrost , or permanently frozen soil. (It may also refer to the treeless plain in general so that northern Sápmi would be included.) Permafrost tundra includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada. The polar tundra is home to several peoples who are mostly nomadic reindeer herders, such as the Nganasan and Nenets in

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1144-415: The 1970s, ANCSA regional and village corporations selected land in and around native villages in the state in proportion to their enrolled populations. Village corporations own the surface rights to the lands they selected, but regional corporations own the subsurface rights of both their own selections and of those of the village corporations. The Act lays out the specifics of the corporations' status. Here

1196-732: The Aleutian Islands. The Adak Airport is operated by the State of Alaska Department of Transportation. Adak Airport has a control tower, an Instrument Landing System and two runways; 7,790 ft (2,370 m) and 7,605 ft (2,318 m) respectively. Both runways are asphalt paved, 200 ft (61 m) wide and at an elevation of 19 ft (6 m). Alaska Airlines operates twice-weekly Boeing 737-800 passenger and cargo jet service from Anchorage . At present, flights operate each Wednesday and Saturday (weather permitting). Occasionally, extra seasonal flights are operated to meet

1248-868: The Department of the Interior has transferred most of the naval facilities to the Aleut Corp. A portion of the Island will remain within the National Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Adak currently provides a fueling port and crew transfer facility for foreign fishing fleets—an airport, docks, housing facilities and food services are available. A grocery and ship supply store and restaurant opened in February 1999. Aleut Corporation maintains

1300-500: The Japanese. Adak Island was chosen as the site of an airfield, and flight operations began in September 1942. On May 11, 1943, four days after the initial invasion date was delayed by bad weather, American soldiers landed on Attu Island and defeated the Japanese garrison there, at the cost of 2,300 Japanese and 550 American lives. Expecting a similar battle for Kiska Island , U.S. and Allied soldiers landing there August 15, 1943, found

1352-533: The Sweeper Cove small boat harbor, including new breakwaters, a 315-foot (96 m) dock and new moorage floats There are approximately 16 miles (26 km) of paved and primitive roads on Adak, all privately owned by the Aleut Corporation. The Aleutian shield fern is an endangered species found only on this island. Adak National Forest is a small copse on the island jokingly referred to as

1404-568: The approximately 6,000 American military men who served on Adak during World War II recalled Adak's cold, foggy, windy weather; mud; Quonset huts ; few women and no trees; and a volcano that from time to time would issue puffs of smoke. Fresh food was a rarity. Adak Naval Air Station continued to be a military base during the Cold War but was designated a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) site in 1995 and closed in March 1997. Shortly thereafter,

1456-602: The areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent. Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass ( Deschampsia antarctica ) and Antarctic pearlwort ( Colobanthus quitensis ), are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula. In contrast with the Arctic tundra, the Antarctic tundra lacks a large mammal fauna, mostly due to its physical isolation from

1508-444: The chilly atmosphere, but as a rule potential evapotranspiration is extremely low, allowing soggy terrain of swamps and bogs even in places that get precipitation typical of deserts of lower and middle latitudes. The amount of native tundra biomass depends more on the local temperature than the amount of precipitation. Alaska Native Regional Corporations The Alaska Native Regional Corporations were established in 1971 when

1560-493: The climate system activated around 2 °C (3.6 °F) of global warming suggested that at this threshold, permafrost thaw would add a further 0.09 °C (0.16 °F) to global temperatures by 2100, with a range of 0.04–0.16 °C (0.07–0.29 °F) Antarctic tundra occurs on Antarctica and on several Antarctic and subantarctic islands, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and

1612-504: The demand of the fishing season. Adak Airport was historically served for many years by Reeve Aleutian Airways (RAA), with scheduled passenger flights to Anchorage operated with Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop combi aircraft during the 1970s, followed by Boeing 727-100 jet combi aircraft during the 1980s and 1990s. Other facilities in Adak include three deep water docks and fueling facilities. The city has requested funds to greatly expand

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1664-464: The facilities. Contractors are performing an environmental clean-up. Alaskan-owned Norquest-Adak Seafood Co. processes Pacific cod , pollock , mackerel , halibut , albacore and brown king crab . Four residents hold a commercial fishing permit, primarily for groundfish . In 2022, Netflix aired a docuseries about explorers seeking pirate gold on the island. Because of its naval aviation past, Adak has an unusually large and sophisticated airport for

1716-488: The increased amounts of warmer rain are another factor which increases permafrost thaw depths. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report estimates that carbon dioxide and methane released from permafrost could amount to the equivalent of 14–175 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per 1 °C (1.8 °F) of warming. For comparison, by 2019, annual anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide alone stood around 40 billion tonnes. A 2018 perspectives article discussing tipping points in

1768-480: The island in the late 1950s, in part to help prevent famine emergencies. Adak Island, with its now large caribou herd of approximately 1,000 animals, according to a 2019 and 2022 count, has become a popular hunting destination. Adak has a subpolar oceanic climate (Koppen Cfc), characterized by persistently overcast skies, moderated temperatures, high winds, significant precipitation and frequent cyclonic storms. At Adak, overcast conditions average nearly 75 percent of

1820-702: The late 1990s, the Afognak Native Corporation launched a government contracting business. The Afognak Native Corporation is a wealthy corporation and was listed in the Top 100 Contractors of the Federal Government in 2010. Coming in at No. 79, The Afognak Native Corporation's contracts were $ 749,557,576.49. Afognak Native Corporation entities also received NASA Small Business Contractor of the Year Award in 2013. The Corporation's profile

1872-517: The occupiers had been stealthily evacuated by Japanese naval forces since the end of May, 1943. Even so, over 313 Allied soldiers died from friendly fire, mines, and other anti-personnel devices during Allied operations to take back Kiska. In 1953, remains of 236 Japanese dead who had been buried in Adak Cemetery were reburied in Japan's Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery . After the war was over,

1924-484: The only subantarctic orchids; the royal penguin ; and the Antipodean albatross . There is some ambiguity on whether Magellanic moorland , on the west coast of Patagonia , should be considered tundra or not. Phytogeographer Edmundo Pisano called it tundra ( Spanish : tundra Magallánica ) since he considered the low temperatures key to restrict plant growth. More recent approaches have since recognized it as

1976-621: The other continents. Sea mammals and sea birds, including seals and penguins, inhabit areas near the shore, and some small mammals, like rabbits and cats, have been introduced by humans to some of the subantarctic islands. The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion includes the Bounty Islands , Auckland Islands , Antipodes Islands , the Campbell Island group , and Macquarie Island . Species endemic to this ecoregion include Corybas dienemus and Corybas sulcatus ,

2028-622: The permafrost area (and the Sami in Sápmi ). Arctic tundra contains areas of stark landscape and is frozen for much of the year. The soil there is frozen from 25 to 90 cm (10 to 35 in) down, making it impossible for trees to grow there. Instead, bare and sometimes rocky land can only support certain kinds of Arctic vegetation , low-growing plants such as moss, heath ( Ericaceae varieties such as crowberry and black bearberry ), and lichen . There are two main seasons, winter and summer, in

2080-413: The polar tundra areas. During the winter it is very cold, dark, and windy with the average temperature around −28 °C (−18 °F), sometimes dipping as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). However, extreme cold temperatures on the tundra do not drop as low as those experienced in taiga areas further south (for example, Russia's, Canada's, and Alaska's lowest temperatures were recorded in locations south of

2132-528: The potential diversity of climates in the ET category involving precipitation, extreme temperatures, and relative wet and dry seasons, this category is rarely subdivided, although, for example, Wainwright, Alaska can be classified ETw and Provideniya, Russia ETs , with most of the rest of the tundra fitting into the ETf subcategory. Rainfall and snowfall are generally slight due to the low vapor pressure of water in

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2184-593: The region. Individual Alaska Natives enrolled in these associations, and their village level equivalents, were made shareholder in the Regional and Village Corporations created by the Act. The twelve for-profit regional corporations, and a thirteenth region representing those Alaska Natives who were no longer residents of Alaska in 1971, were awarded the monetary and property compensation created by ANCSA. Village corporations and their shareholders received compensation through

2236-459: The regional corporations. The fact that many ostensibly Alaska Native villages throughout the state were not empowered by the ANCSA to form village corporations later led to a number of lawsuits. The regional and village corporations are now owned by Alaska Native people through privately owned shares of corporation stock. Alaska Natives alive at ANCSA's enactment on December 17, 1971, who enrolled in

2288-444: The subject of habitat conservation programs. In Canada and Russia, many of these areas are protected through a national Biodiversity Action Plan . Tundra tends to be windy, with winds often blowing upwards of 50–100 km/h (30–60 mph). However, it is desert-like, with only about 150–250 mm (6–10 in) of precipitation falling per year (the summer is typically the season of maximum precipitation). Although precipitation

2340-445: The time during June and July, dropping back to approximately 50 percent of the time from October through February. Adak averages 173 days per year with fog. The foggiest months are July and August, when an average of 26 of the 31 days have fog. This number drops dramatically toward the winter season, where the months of December through March have, on average, fewer than ten days with fog during any one month. Gales occur in all months of

2392-540: The town of Adak was incorporated at the site of the former base. Down from a peak population of 6,000, the island recorded a 2010 census population of 326 residents, all in the city of Adak, in the northern part of the island. In 1980, the Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge was created and much of Adak Island lies within its boundaries. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced approximately 23 caribou calves to

2444-412: The tree line). During the summer, temperatures rise somewhat, and the top layer of seasonally-frozen soil melts, leaving the ground very soggy. The tundra is covered in marshes, lakes, bogs, and streams during the warm months. Generally daytime temperatures during the summer rise to about 12 °C (54 °F) but can often drop to 3 °C (37 °F) or even below freezing. Arctic tundras are sometimes

2496-485: The upper reaches of the volcanoes. Adak has an average of 341 days per year with measurable precipitation. Adak is served by the Aleutian Region Schools. The Adak School, now closed due to declining enrollment, used to serves grades K–12 and had around 20 students before it was officially shuttered on June 30, 2023. A land exchange between Alaska Native Regional Corporations , the U.S. Navy, and

2548-568: The wake of the COVID-19 pandemic , the CARES Act set aside about $ 8 billion in funds for federally-recognized "tribal governments". The U.S. Treasury Department earmarked about $ 500 million of those funds for ANCs. While the federal government had generally recognized that ANCs fell under "tribal governments" since the passage of the ISDA, three Native Indian tribes from the lower 48 states sued

2600-600: The world: for example, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug produces 90% of Russia's natural gas. A severe threat to tundra is global warming , which causes permafrost to thaw. The thawing of the permafrost in a given area on human time scales (decades or centuries) could radically change which species can survive there. It also represents a significant risk to infrastructure built on top of permafrost, such as roads and pipelines. In locations where dead vegetation and peat have accumulated, there

2652-522: The year at Adak, with the greatest chances being from December through March. A peak gust of 109 knots (202 km/h; 125 mph) occurred at Adak in March 1954. Adak's average temperatures range from 20 to 60 °F (−7 to 16 °C), with a record high of 75 °F (24 °C) in August 1956 and a record low of 3 °F (−16 °C) in January 1963 and February 1964. Average annual precipitation

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2704-456: Was organized in 1977 through the merger of two ANCSA village corporations: Port Lions Native Corporation and Natives of Afognak, Inc. It is governed by a nine-member board of directors. Afognak Native Corporation has many business interests. For 18 years it participated in and profited from timber development ventures on Afogank Island. It operates a number of successful subsidiaries including leasing, bioenergy operations and oil field services. In

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