Pollutants: • Air

• Gas

• Oil

• Soil

Natural Disasters:• volcanoes

• Collision of continental plates

• Glaciers

Plants:The plants that are able to survive are very short and near the ground so they can survive the wind and cold. Some have hairy stems to keep them warm but they do not come alive until summer.

Plants have been used as medicine like the bark of the Cinchona tree was used 400 years ago to reduce fever. Now its still used to make quinine, a drug used to treat malaria and other diseases.

The purple foxglove plants’ dried leaves are used to treat heart disease and this drug is called digitalis.

The Mexican yams roots produce a drug called cortisone which is used for treating arthritis and other diseases.

There are about 1,700 kinds of plants, and over 400 different types of flowers in the artic and subartic tundra:

•Sedges•Reindeer mosses

• Liverworts•Crustose

• Foliose lichen • Arctic willow• Arctic poppy

• Cushion plants

They have special adaptations that allow them to survive in the winter weather. Some animals have short legs; long hair; and a coat of thick fur and they have short tails and large, furry feet in order for them to be able to survive in the winter. Many animals have white fur which camoflauges them against the snow so it will make it harder for

predators to be able to find them.

Every ten or thirteen years, the small mammals in the tundra breed in large numbers but soon they run out of plants to eat and many die. The larger animals also grow in number because of the increase in their food supply when the

larger animals begin to die then the plants can grow back.

Animals that live in the tundra are:

• polar bears

• caribou

• snowy owls

• Lemmings

• Voles

• Hares

• Squirrels

•Arctic Fox

• Arctic bumble bees

Animals:

Animals are adapted to handle long, cold winters and to breed and raise young children quickly during the summer. Animals such as mammals and birds also have additional insulation from fat.

Many animals hibernate during the winter because food is not abundant. Because of constant immigration and emigration, the population continually oscillates.

Reindeer moss Lichens

Caribou LemmingsHares

Wolves Fox Snow Owl

HumanFood Web:

Feeling thirsty?

In the short summers, the snow and ice melt to leave pools of water, however I wouldn’t necessarily drink it!! The layer of earth beneath the tundra is frozen all

year long this is called the permafrost. Tundra winters are long, dark and extremely cold for 6 to 10 months of the year and fierce winds blow while snow and ice cover

the ground. Even the sea freezes as the temperature gets colder.

• http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/tundra.html

Sources

• http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/tundra.htm

• http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/biomes/tundra.html

TundraClimatologist and Geologist

By:Dan Martin

Tundra introduction

It’s split into two different tundra's. One is the Arctic Tundra which is located in the northern hemisphere. The climate or weather over a long period of time is very cold.

The second is the Alpine tundra which is located in high mountains all over the world.It is also the worlds coldest biome.

Arctic Tundra

The Arctic tundra is a biome that is located high in the northern hemisphere. A biome is a community characterized by it’s plants and animals. It’s apart of Russia, Greenland, Alaska, Canada, and Europe. It’s growing season ranges from 50 to 60 days a year. In the winter the average temperature is –34 degrees Celsius. In the summer the average temperature is 3 to 12 degrees Celsius.

Arctic Tundra Cont.

The temperatures in the summer allow this biome to sustain life. The way the earth is tilted the suns UV rays have very low intensity which is one of the reasons it is so cold. The soil in the tundra is often frozen by abiotic factors which are non-living. This is called Permafrost or permanent ice which is existent within a meter of the surface.

Arctic Tundra Cont..

The annual rainfall is very low. It’s usually less than 25 centimeters. Water is unavailable during most of the year. The annual rainfall consists of melting snow and rain which isn’t a lot. Due to this the immigration or movement of a species into a new area does not occur very often.

Tundra Area

The tundra is located in the northern hemisphere in areas such as Russia, Greenland, Canada, Europe, and Alaska. The longitude and latitude of parts of the tundra lie on the latitude would have been 33-66 latitude and 30-90 longitude.

Artic Tundra

All Tundra

Alpine Tundra

The alpine tundra can be found at any latitude on earth. The Alpine Tundra is a tundra that is treeless due to it’s high elevation. The growing season here is about 180 days unlike the Arctic Tundra. At night time the temperatures can drop to below freezing.

Tundra Seasons

The seasons in the tundra are different due to the type of tundra. The Arctic Tundra has Summers, but they are still very cold. The summers do have 24 hours of sunlight for days and have months of complete darkness. The temperature also differentiates due to different types of tundra.