Essay on Tundra: The Coldest and Harshest Biomes of the World

The tundra, which comes from the Finnish word, tunturi, which means treeless, is the coldest terrestrial biome known to biologists (University of California Museum of Paleontology). Located in the northern hemisphere, between 55° and 70° North, the Tundra covers about 20% of Earth’s surface (S). Although tundras can be found in many of the continents, most notably, the Northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland Tundra and the Scandinavian Montane Birch forest and grasslands stand out the most (Gardella). They are all large tourists attractions disply nature’s ability to thrive in the harshest environments. Winters in the tundra have an average temperature of -30° F, due to its high altitude. However, the average temperatures in the tundra during

Climates can be described as weather conditions that exist in over an extended period of time. The Mediterranean and the Tundra are two of many climates that exist all over the world. .The Mediterranean is located near the western side of continents, and the Tundra is found along the coast of the Arctic ocean. Among the two there are many similarities and differences.

Humans have been interacting with the Arctic tundra for centuries now. They have used the land to explore and race, for example, the infamous race between Admunsen and Scott to the South pole. However, the human civilisation on the Arctic tundra have had their implications, both severe and light. Humans have slaughtered whales and seals since very early days, for food as well as commercial and self-profiting purposes. The most recent and paramount problem is global warming and pollution, which is harming the Arctic Tundra far more than the sealing and whaling ever did.

In the Northeastern part of Russia, summers are cold and winters are colder. The Siberian Tundra is home to many abiotic factors such as strong winds, little precipitation, and short summers days. With poor soil and permafrost, the tundra could soon be gone, or at least cause dramatic changes to the earth. According to Evans (2002), the grounds of the Siberian Tundra are misty during the summer. The average temperature in the Tundra is 37 to 54 degrees yet, in these short months of summer, the Siberian tundra has a permafrost layer that is starts to disappear. This loss of permafrost is resulting in the rise of carbon emissions, which contributes to global climate change. Through research, we can better understand the disappearance of the permafrost layer in the Siberian tundra. How and why is it disappearing, and what impact this disappearance is having on the tundra, and on a much larger scale, the Earth?

In class, we watched a film explaining the wonders of the tundra biome. Tundra refers to the treeless plains that are most commonly characteristic of the cold environment of arctic and sub-arctic regions. They make up 1/5, or 20%, of the Earth’s surface. The word tundra originated and derived from the Finnish word "Tunturia" which means 'treeless heights,' which applies perfectly to tundra and its lack of large trees. When one refers to the tundra biome, they thinks about the characteristics of location containing an extremely cold climate, low biotic diversity, simple vegetation structure, short growing season, limited drainage and large population oscillation.

Imagine that you're in a place that’s alluring and unique. There are animals prancing around everywhere on a ground that covers layers of frozen water. The Project that I have chosen to take on the habitat and ecosystem called the Alaskan Arctic Tundra. The tundra has an extremely cold climate with a simple vegetation structure. Even though I chose the Alaskan Arctic Tundra, there are other places that are also tundras like in Siberia, Canada, and even a tiny part of Colorado. The geography of it has a variety of plants even though there is a permanent layer of permafrost.

The Tundra is an extremely cold climate. During the winter months the average temperature is -34 degrees Celsius. The Arctic tundra is located in north Russia. Its coordinates are anywhere between 60 to 80 degrees North latitude and 70 to 180 degrees east longitude. The average precipitation including melting snow is 6 to 10 inches. The arctic tundra has a cold and dry climate but underneath the top layer of soil is a solid layer of subsoil called permafrost which never thaws.

Some small, day-to-day things you can do to help are finding alternatives to driving as much as possible, make energy efficiency a dominant factor when choosing appliances, turn lights off when not using them, recycle, use less water when cleaning yourself or your home, eat locally produced food, and more. Cars release high levels of carbon dioxide, so doing things like walking to work, carpooling, and riding on public transportation instead of driving yourself everywhere. The more energy you use, the more carbon you’re putting into the atmosphere so using energy efficient appliances, saving water, recycling, turning lights off when you don’t need them, and eating locally produced foods will reduce your carbon footprint. It takes a great deal of energy to ship foods from long distances; keep lights and household appliances running; and clean, distribute, and pump water through our homes. Some large things you can do are stop deforestation, get our elected leaders involved and fight misinformation. Deforestation is said to account for 10 percent of the world's “heat-trapping emissions” (Union)

Tundra is one of the most widespread biomes on the globe. Covering large regions at high latitudes and high altitudes, tundra accounts for five to ten percent of the world’s land surface (1). Studying the ecology of tundra ecosystems is particularly important regarding the subject of climate change. Since climate is changing fastest at high latitudes and altitudes, the tundra ecosystem is currently experiencing rapid changes in its natural environment (2). In addition, tundra acts as a carbon sink, with soils storing more than 90% of the carbon present in this ecosystem (3). Plant growth and litter decomposition are two main factors driving carbon accumulation and release rates. Both of these processes are sensitive to climate change, and alterations in the balance of these processes will affect whether tundra will continue to serve as a carbon sink, or eventually develop into a carbon source, and thus further the greenhouse effect (4).

There are five major biomes: deserts, grasslands, forests, aquatic, and tundra. The arctic tundra is one which has a frigid climate, whereas a desert is known to be extremely hot most of the year (UCMP. 2016). This is where opportunities are abound for biologists as one who does not appreciate the extreme heat, or has water phobias can study a grassland tundra. What is remarkable is the common species some may have that adapted to the biome. In fact, there are polar bears that live in the tundra and black bears that live in the in the forests. They are both bears; however, a polar bear has adapted to the extreme cold with very thick fur and is white to blend in with the snow. A black bear would not thrive in the arctic tundra as it has adapted to surviving in a forest setting with more moderate

The boreal forest occupies a vast area of northern North America and Eurasia. In addition, there is relatively close relation between the location of the boreal forest biome and the subarctic climate type, with a similar relationship between the locations of the tundra climate and the tundra biome. In a boreal forest biome there is poor drainage usually in the summer, due to the permanently frozen subsoil, which stops downward percolation of water, and in part to the derangement of normal surface drainage by the action of glaciers during the recent Pleistocene ice age. Furthermore, bogs and swamps are abundant, thus the ground normally being spongy in the summer and frozen in the long winters. The boreal forest biome vegetation is located near the great northern forest, which contains by far the simplest accumulation of plants of any biome. Most of the trees are conifers, which include needleleaf evergreens, with the important exception of the tamarack or larch which drops its needles in winter. In addition, they contain a variety of species limited to mostly pines, firs, and spruces, which extend broadly in homogeneous stands. The trees tend to grow taller and more densely near the southern margins of the biome, due to the summer being longer and warmer. However, near the northern margins, the trees tend to be spindly, short, and more openly spaced. Therefore, the boreal forest biome has harsh climate, floristic homogeneity, and slow plant growth, which produce a limited food supply for animals living in the

The tundra is a biome of a large, flat, treeless landscape in the Northern Hemisphere where permafrost is evident. The tundra covers 20 percent of the earth’s surface. The tundra has a colder climate with temperatures -30 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit with precipitation of six to ten inches. The environment is cold, windy and harsh; forcing plants and animals to adapt. Herbivores eat the plants to survive, and the predators eat the other predators or herbivores. Nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide made up the atmosphere in the tundra. The tundra has the same average temperatures and landscapes are prevalent. Variation across continents is very little. The landscape, temperature and precipitation are are very similar.

People know that the global warming isn’t good for the earth, but they don’t know how big of an effect it has on the earth. Some ways that the average person could help is by traveling on public transportation, or carpooling with a friend or family member to reduce the gas emissions that vehicles produce. The earth is already gone past a point that the human population needs to take action, but not so much that there is no going back. We can still change the rate that the ice caps melt, if we start

Spectacularly diverse and unique, the Arctic is home to a population of approximately four million people and 21,000 different species! Climate change is by far the greatest threat on the spectacularly unique biodiversity that the Arctic has to offer according to the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) with research done by over 200 scientists from 15 countries. The Arctic in particular is expected to be negatively affected by global warming. The globally agreed upon, sustainable increase in temperature is by 2 °C. The Arctic is expected to become significantly warmer with a predicted 2.8-7.8°C rise in temperature within this next century. Extreme changes such as this are likely to have devastating effects on Arctic biodiversity due to the

As the impact of global warming on the environment exponentially expands, issues such as increasing air and water temperatures, rising water levels in coastal regions, growing severity of storms, polar ice melting, increased acidity in oceans, and altered environments and habitats also worsen at an alarming rate (Denshak). These are not unknown concepts, but what is less known is the effect that global warming has on the Arctic region and its biodiversity. This specific issue primarily deals with climate change in the scheme of melting polar ice shelves, rising temperatures, and increased acidity of the world’s oceans. Since the Arctic region has a very different, more fragile