Overview of Cold Environments
Geography: AQA GCSE, topic 2.4.1
Overview of Cold Environments
Cold environments (i.e. tundra and polar) have the following general characteristics:
Where are polar and tundra biomes?
- The Arctic and Antarctica are examples of polar biomes.
- Alaska, Norway, and Siberia are examples of tundra biomes.
What is the polar/tundra climate like?
- Temperatures in polar and tundra biomes are very low:
- Polar regions are always colder than 10oC, and can reach -90oC.
- Tundra regions are always colder than 10oC and in the winter average about -35oC.
- Levels of rainfall are low in both polar and tundra regions, but it rains more in tundra regions.
- There are four different seasons in both polar and tundra biomes.
What is the soil like in polar & tundra biomes?
- In polar regions, there is no soil open to the air. An ice sheet covers polar regions all year round.
- In tundra regions, permafrost covers the ground with a tiny layer of infertile, acidic soil on top of it.
Which plants live in polar & tundra environments?
- Plant life is rare in both polar and tundra regions.
- In polar regions, algae, moss, lichen, forbs, and some grass can just about survive. But they do not grow very much.
- In tundra regions, the same plants exist but are able to grow more. Some trees are able to survive in the tundra.
Which animals live in the polar/tundra environments?
- Polar bears!
- In polar regions, biodiversity is low. Polar bears, small mammals (like the Arctic fox and Arctic hare), Emperor penguins, walruses, and seals can survive.
- In the tundra, there is a little more biodiversity, with animals like wolves, reindeer, owls, and mountain goats.
People in polar/tundra
- Nobody lives permanently in Antarctica. But some scientists do stay there for stints to do research.
- Very few people live in polar or tundra regions.
- The indigenous Inuit people live in the tundra in Canada and because of the fossil fuel supply, some people who work for oil companies like Shell or Exxon will work on oil fields in Canada or Siberia.
Test yourself on Overview of Cold Environments
What are the two types of cold environment?
What do we call the layer of permanently frozen ground that is usually found beneath the soil in cold environments?