In physical geography, tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sámi word тӯндар meaning "uplands", "treeless mountain tract". There are three regions and associated types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra.
Steller's eider is a migrating Arctic diving duck that breeds along the coastlines of eastern Russia and Alaska. It is the rarest, smallest, and fastest flying of the eider species. Amongst the Inupiat, Steller's eider is known as the "bird that sat in the campfire", referring to the burnt-ish color of the male's belly.
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions. The tree line is sometimes distinguished from a lower timberline or forest line, which is the line below which trees form a forest with a closed canopy.
The Ross's goose is a white goose with black wingtips and a relatively short neck. It is the smallest of the three "white geese" that breed in North America. It is similar in appearance to a white-phase snow goose, but about 40% smaller. Other differences from the snow goose are that the bill is smaller in proportion to its body and lacks "black lips". The dark phase is extremely rare.
Poa is a genus of about 570 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass, bluegrass, tussock, and speargrass. Poa is Greek for "fodder". Poa are members of the subfamily Pooideae of the family Poaceae.
There are over 190 vascular plant species on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. This figure does not include algae, mosses, and lichens, which are non-vascular plants. For an island so far north, this number of species constitutes an astonishing variety of plant life. Because of the harsh climate and the short growing season, all the plants are slow growing. They seldom grow higher than 10 cm (4 in)
Euphrasia, or eyebright, is a genus of about 450 species of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Orobanchaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. They are semi-parasitic on grasses and other plants. The common name refers to the plant's use in treating eye infections.
Calamagrostis purpurascens, is a perennial grass commonly known as purple reedgrass, purple pinegrass, or alpine reedgrass. It grows 30 to 80 centimetres (31 in) tall.
The Oldest Dryas is a biostratigraphic subdivision layer corresponding to a relatively abrupt climatic cooling event, or stadial, which occurred during the last glacial retreat. The time period to which the layer corresponds is poorly defined and varies between regions, but it is generally dated as starting at 18.5–17 thousand years (ka) before present (BP) and ending 15–14 ka BP. As with the Younger and Older Dryas events, the stratigraphic layer is marked by abundance of the pollen and other remains of Dryas octopetala, an indicator species that colonizes arctic-alpine regions.
Salix arctica, the Arctic willow, is a tiny creeping willow. It is adapted to survive in Arctic conditions, specifically tundras.
The Arctic ground squirrel is a species of ground squirrel native to the Arctic and Subarctic of North America and Asia. People in Alaska, particularly around the Aleutians, refer to them as "parka" squirrels, most likely because their pelt is good for the ruff on parkas and for clothing.
About 1,702 species of plants live on the Arctic tundra, including flowering plants, short shrubs, herbs, grasses, mosses, and lichens. These plants are adapted to short, cold growing seasons. They have the ability to withstand extremely cold temperatures in the winter, and grow and reproduce in summer conditions that are quite limiting.
Major environmental issues caused by contemporary climate change in the Arctic region range from the well-known, such as the loss of sea ice or melting of the Greenland ice sheet, to more obscure, but deeply significant issues, such as permafrost thaw, social consequences for locals and the geopolitical ramifications of these changes. The Arctic is likely to be especially affected by climate change because of the high projected rate of regional warming and associated impacts. Temperature projections for the Arctic region were assessed in 2007: These suggested already averaged warming of about 2 °C to 9 °C by the year 2100. The range reflects different projections made by different climate models, run with different forcing scenarios. Radiative forcing is a measure of the effect of natural and human activities on the climate. Different forcing scenarios reflect, for example, different projections of future human greenhouse gas emissions.
Gynaephora groenlandica, the Arctic woolly bear moth, is an erebid moth native to the High Arctic in the Canadian archipelago, Greenland and Wrangel Island in Russia. It is known for its slow rate of development, as its full caterpillar life cycle may extend up to 7 years, with moulting occurring each spring. This species remains in a larval state for the vast majority of its life. Rare among Lepidoptera, it undergoes an annual period of diapause that lasts for much of the calendar year, as G. groenlandica is subject to some of the longest, most extreme winters on Earth. In this dormant state, it can withstand temperatures as low as −70 °C. The Arctic woolly bear moth also exhibits basking behavior, which aids in temperature regulation and digestion and affects both metabolism and oxygen consumption. Females generally do not fly, while males usually do.
Gowardia is a genus of medium-sized, greyish hair lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. It is a circumpolar genus, mainly restricted to arctic-alpine habitats in northern Canada, Europe, and Russia.
Luzula nivalis, commonly known as arctic wood-rush or less commonly as snowy wood-rush, is a species of perennial rush native to the North American Arctic and Northern Europe. It was described by Polunin (1940) as one of the most abundant, ubiquitous, and ecologically important of all arctic plants.
The Canadian Arctic tundra is a biogeographic designation for Northern Canada's terrain generally lying north of the tree line or boreal forest, that corresponds with the Scandinavian Alpine tundra to the east and the Siberian Arctic tundra to the west inside the circumpolar tundra belt of the Northern Hemisphere.
Roseomonas arcticisoli is a species of Gram negative, strictly aerobic, coccobacilli-shaped, light red-colored bacteria. It was first isolated from tundra soil near Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway. The species name refers to the Arctic soil from which it was first isolated.
Terrimonas arctica is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic and non-motile bacterium from the genus of Terrimonas which has been isolated from soil from the Arctic tundra from Norway.
Kytalyk National Park is a protected area for the Arctic breeding grounds of migratory birds on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, including a significant portion of sites for the critically endangered Siberian crane. The name "kytalyk" is the Yakut-language word for the Siberian crane. The park is on the low-lying tundra of the delta of the Indigirka River, on the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. The park was officially created in 2019. The park is located in Allaikhovsky District of the Sakha Republic.
