How a natural and undisturbed system reacts on human intruders, that’s basically the question that will bring me to all ends of the world.
I found some huge and impressive relatively people-free natural systems in mountains above the polar circle. Harsh climate and wild nature provide a fairly effective barrier against humans. But nothing is a hundred percent human-proof. Cause we are simply everywhere.
Wherever we go on this planet, we leave roads, paths and tracks that facilitate our transport. But this immense network of transportation has a large impact on nature. What I want to know, is what happens in mountains when we build our roads. We know a lot about roads in lowlands, but the nature on top of the world is special and reacts in a completely different way to disturbance. That can be good, or bad. If it’s bad, we better start rethinking our future use of mountains, or their impressive nature will soon be gone.
Even tracks (here the start of Kungsleden, Laplands most famous walking tour)
can have a strong influence on a natural system, but their effect on mountains is largely unknown.
The 3D lab 