Tundra
Geography: Edexcel IGCSE, topic 2.2.6
Overview of Tundra
Tundra have the following general characteristics:
Where are tundra biomes?
- Alaska, Finland, and Siberia are examples of tundra biomes.
What is the tundra climate like?
- Temperatures in tundra biomes are very low:
- 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 the tundra biome.
What is the soil like in tundra biomes?
- In tundra regions, permafrost covers the ground with a tiny layer of infertile, acidic soil on top of it.
Which plants live in tundra environments?
- Plant life is rare in tundra regions.
- The same plants exist in tundra regions but can grow more, such as grasses, shrubs, and flowering plants. Some trees are able to survive in the tundra.
Which animals live in the tundra environments?
- In the tundra, there is a little more biodiversity than in polar regions, with animals like wolves, small mammals (like the Arctic fox and Arctic hare), reindeer, owls, and mountain goats.
People
- 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 Tundra
What do we call the layer of permanently frozen ground that is usually found beneath the soil in cold environments?