Mold in Arctic Desert?

1 April 2012
10:54 PM

Sunrise at	7:05 AM	in direction	77°	East-northeast
Sunset at	8:46 PM	in direction	284°	West-northwest

Duration of day: 13 hours, 41 minutes (6 minutes, 45 seconds longer than yesterday)

One of the tidbits my family and friends were quick to share with me about living in Fairbanks was that it was actually a desert, similar to an arctic desert.  The total precipitation qualifies Fairbanks for that designation, although the arctic usually refers to the Northern Slope Tundra, the Brooks Range, or the Taiga south of the Brooks Range.  On the website, Alaska's Cold Desert published by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the coastal regions of the north are usually designated as wetlands because once there is melting, the permafrost provides a barrier so that all water melt remains on top.

Fairbanks is actually like that in many areas.  Along the hillsides, water will seep down into the soil quickly or dissipate, requiring most hillside residents to haul in water for home use.  Residents closer to the permafrost regions do have water, and the presence of water fits some aspects of the description for the arctic coastal regions.  It sits upon the top of the ground surface.  There are regions near campus that humans use only in winter when the water is frozen.  Once break up arrives, those tracts of land are impassable bogs and ponds; other overland routes are taken.

And an unexpected feature of life in our subarctic desert, is that mold and fungus grow in abundance here.  When I think of desert, being from San Diego, I think of Anza Borrego and Mojave.  And when I think of a dry climate, having spent most of my adult life in Colorado, I think of the crisp, thin, and dry air of the Rocky Mountains.  The Alaskan Interior doesn't fit those experiences of "desert" and "dry".

The first place I noticed a big difference was in our refrigerator.  The shelf life here is considerably less than that of food we stored in our refrigerator in Colorado.  In fact, fresh food can develop mold in days, even when refrigerated.  There is not much benefit is storing anything fresh, nor can sauces or condiments be kept with any predictability.  Our friend Vera does not keep left overs, and I have wondered if it is simply part of her upbringing or the practical response to a food that will turn all too quickly once put into the refrigerator.

Another way fungi manifest is through mushrooms.  There is a wide array of native mushrooms, many poisonous, that grow everywhere during summer months.  Our back yard has healthy fungus stems growing each year, but spores have also found their way into house plant pots which have been affected by fungus establishing themselves in the soil and then leaching nutrients from the roots.

While trees appear to remain free of fungus while still growing and healthy, any piece of wood left on the ground or any wood used in construction is susceptible to fungus in the form of moss if not treated or dried properly.  Carpeting in houses, wall siding, roofs - all can be covered in mold.  While metal is not susceptible to mold, metal roofs can be covered with fine spruce dust and birch seed, which then clings to the metal roof and that in turn becomes black with mold.

And, at the moment I am sneezing like crazy.  I think rather than the few germinal buds on the birch or spruce, it is most likely mold spores.  It has been warm enough and wet enough for these members of the plant kingdom to set the stage for growth.  Once all the snow melts, even with the bogs and mosquitos, things improve, but right now my nose will suddenly itch like mad and I will go through several sneezing fits.  Gary just now sneezed several times; we are both affected by it.

Neither of us had any issues while living in Colorado and I do find that interesting.  First, Colorado would not be considered a desert, but it is in fact drier in terms of day to day living.  Although things could become moldy under the right conditions, it certainly seemed to take much longer for the accumulation of moisture combined with lack of air movement to cause noticeable deterioration.  While my skin was drier in Colorado, I had fewer nose bleeds.  I can't recall having one more than once or twice in 5 years in Colorado (if that many).  Here nose bleeds are regular occurrence.  I am busily trying to figure out how all of this fits together - more mold, more standing water, more sneezing, more nose bleeds, desert designation ... see what I mean?

It's paradoxical.