The Arctic Institute’s 2025 Resilient Roots Series: An Introduction

Wooden cabin nestled in a Norwegian valley, surrounded by a lush sprawl of native vegetation. Photo: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

When I mentioned Arctic flora to my grandmother, who’s spent a lifetime tending windswept Scottish gardens, I instantly caught her attention. If anyone knows how plants behave in thin or nutrient-poor soils, or when the cold comes early, it’s her. Scotland is no stranger to Arctic climates. Inverness (57.4°N) is on par latitudinally with Sitka, Alaska (57.1°N). Standing seaside in Aberdeen, one would be geographically closer to Stavanger than to the UK’s capital, London. Scotland’s Cairngorms have been known to experience wind chill temperatures below -30°C. Its peatlands, much like those in Arctic Canada and Russia, are inaccessible due to snow cover and ice for up to 100 days annually. My grandmother’s passion for cultivating hardy plants has helped me to realize that the story of the Arctic’s flora is deeply human-oriented, culturally central, and vital to Arctic security in an era of climate change.

“In awfully cold and harsh places like the Scottish countryside and the Arctic, people rely on these sort of hardy plants. The ones that can take the cold and still be of use to you”.

“In afa cal an’ harsh places like the Scottish countryside and the Arctic, folk rely on thae sort o’ hardy plants. The yins that can tak the cal an’ still be o’ yees tae yae”. (Wigtownshire Scots)

Petrena Kerr Lochrie, Lifelong Horticulturist & Prize-Winning Flower Presser

Today, climate change is intrinsically tied to geopolitics and regional security. It intensifies resource competition, increases unemployment, and displaces vulnerable populations- putting pressure on host communities and governments alike. Policy-makers often consider the broader implications of climate change in the Arctic, specifically the opportunities or threats it presents to their state: icebreakers, new shipping routes, and militarization, to name a few. The Arctic is, after all, the fastest-warming region in the world, and it is already deep in the midst of a climate emergency. For communities across the circumpolar North, this is not a looming threat but a daily reality. With shorter tourist seasons due to less snow, local economies are already seeing a decline in earnings. Members of the Skolt Sámi community have raised concerns that mushrooms, an important seasonal food for reindeer, cannot grow in the dry soil, leading to a diminished quality of meat. Permafrost thaw has made the Arctic ground unstable, endangering infrastructure such as roads, pipelines, and buildings. Yet, the human impact of climate-driven changes to the Arctic’s flora remains a blind spot in global discourse. It is often sidelined by regions where those living in them are already facing dire consequences; think of droughts and migration in Sub-Saharan Africa, flooding in South Asia, and wildfires across the Mediterranean. Of course, coastal erosion and flooding demand attention, but flora loss works differently: there is less of a visible spectacle and no major headlines, but it is nonetheless profoundly destabilizing.

Arctic flora may seem like a distant topic to those living outside of the Arctic Circle, but hardy plants remind us that resilience in the face of harsh climates is what links communities across latitudes, from my grandmother’s wind-bitten garden in Scotland to the permafrost of the Arctic. This series of commentaries explores the ecological, cultural, and human security significance of key Arctic flora species, revealing the often-overlooked threads that connect all of us. It highlights how climate change threatens more than biodiversity by exposing the direct impacts to human wellbeing, Indigenous lifeways, and geopolitical resilience. Each article in the series examines a group of plants, their importance to living organisms, the risks of climate change, and the threat posed to humans if they were to decline, or worse yet, disappear altogether.

Anthony Heron is a Research Associate and Deputy Editor-in-Chief at The Arctic Institute.