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Tundra!
by Paul Wittle

Contents!

1. Location

2. Climate

3. Plants

4. Animals

Location

• This biome is found close to the Arctic Circle and between the polar ice caps and the coniferous forest belt. Examples are Alaska, northern Scandinavia, Arctic Russia and Siberia (so basically it's most of the bit at the top of the map).

Try to remember at least two examples as they are often asked for in exams!

• There are no tundra areas located in the southern hemispere!

The Climate

• The temperature in tundra areas is very low all through the year. Only 3 or 4 months of the year have average temperatures above freezing point.

• The precipitation levels are low and irregular, most of it falls as snow.

• The winter has very short days, in some cases in the year the sun never rises through the whole day.

• Summer days are long but the sun is always low in the sky. (this means that the suns radiation must travel through more of the earths atmosphere in order to hit the ground, and therefore has less energy when it does. This means that the tundra area stays very cold even in the summer, the amount of the suns energy that falls on a point at a given time is know as "insolation".) There are some days when the sun never sets.

Plants

• The natural vegatation is adapted to harsh conditions and it has to be! The growing season lasts only 3 months and there is only a shallow layer of soil resting on permanently frozen soil and rock. This soil and rock that is always frozen is known as "permafrost".

• The plants found in the tundra areas are mosses, lichens, hardy grasses and colourful flowers. All of these grow small and close to the ground and have shallow root systems.

• Dwarf shrubs such as arctic willow survive in sheltered places but no trees can survive such a inhospitable climate.

Animals

• There are only a few species of birds and animals that can survive in this biome. The plants do provide food for hardy herbivores such as Caribou (reindeer), Musk Ox, Arctic Hares, Lemmings and large numbers of insects.
• Cavnivores which eat the herbivores are animals like arctic wolves, foxes and birds of prey.
• Many of the animals survive by migrating when the winter sets in, examples of this are the caribou and arctic wolf. Many of the birds also migrate. Other animals cope by hibernating. Just a few birds and animals can survive throughout the year in such a hostile environment, for example lemmings and ptarmigan.

That is a look at the tundra environment which is one of the most hostile on earth. I hope to add to this to make each of these pages even better so visit again!

If you have exams coming up, then I wish you GOOD LUCK!

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