ANIMALSARCTIC FOX CARIBOU ERMINE GRIZZLY BEAR HARLEQUIN DUCK MUSK OX POLAR BEAR SNOWY OWL

Tundra

The tundra is an unusually cold and dry climate. Precipitation totals 6-10 inches of rain a year, which includes melted snow. This is almost as little as the world's driest deserts. Coupled with strong and drying winds, the tundra is an extreme weather biome. The tundra seems like a wet and soggy place because the precipitation that falls evaporates slowly, and because of the poor drainage caused by the permafrost.

Arctic tundra is located in the northern hemisphere, encircling the north pole and extending south to the coniferous forests of the taiga. The arctic is known for its cold, desert-like conditions. The growing season ranges from 50 to 60 days. The average winter temperature is -34° C (-30° F), but the average summer temperature is 3-12° C (37-54° F) which enables this biome to sustain life. Rainfall may vary in different regions of the arctic. Yearly precipitation, including melting snow, is 15 to b25 cm (6 to 10 inches). Soil is formed slowly. A layer of permanently frozen subsoil called permafrost exists, consisting mostly of gravel and finer material.

Arctic Tundra

Trip to the Tundra

Pack warm clothes because its very cold and tents and heaters. The best time to visit the tundra biome is in the middle of summer because it’s the warmest time.

Not many trees grow in the tundra because of the permafrost and then trees cannot send their roots through the ground.

Polar Fox- Makes its home in small burrows in the frost-Free ground often in low mounds or in Rock piles

Birches, Polar Fox

Calliergon Giganteum, Caribou Calliergon Giganteum is an aquatic

plant found growing on the bottom of the tundra lake beds and in and around bogs and fens.

Caribou live in the Northern forest of North America, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Russia. It is estimated that there are 5 million caribou left in the world.

Dwarf Willow, Ermine

Dwarf Willow trees are the smallest trees in the world the reach up to 5 cm when fully grown and it still spreads by itself.

Ermine live in the northern part of the biome.

Labrador Tea, Grizzly Bear

Labrador tea plants grow to be 4 to 5 feet. It grows in the southern latitudes in the tundra and it creeps over the ground forming a carpet.

Grizzly Bear-lives in Northern America and Eurasia grizzly’s are considered a subspecies of the brown bear.

Bibliography

Http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/Tundra

Pasque flower has several stems that rise 6-8 inches off the ground. On each stem is one flower with 5-8 petals.

Harlequin Duck is a male duck that has dark blue plumage highlighted in black outline white striping and spots of white. They live in flocks up to 50 in the Atlantic and in larger groups in the pacific, except when breeding.

Pasque Flower and Harlequin Duck

Tufted Saxifrage, and Musk Ox

Turfed Saxifrage is a small perennial that grows in thick mats on the tundra. It has several straight flower stems which can get 3-15 cm high.

Musk ox live in frozen tundra of northern Alaska. No other animal lives as far north.