3.2 The main biomes  (Page 4/4)

The Tundra Biome and the ICE FIELDS

• The Tundra biome occurs north of 65 °N as a broad zone extending around the Northern Arctic Ocean in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland and as far as the Bering Sea to the east of Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere it is represented in a small area on Terra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America.
• Climatic conditions in the Tundra biome are characterised by extreme cold. During the long winter months, the temperature falls to far below freezing point. Snowstorms with icy winds occur continuously. Nothing grows and plants remain dormant for many months while the ground is frozen.
• During the summer, the temperature may rise to ± 10 °C, but the summer only lasts for three to four months. Only the surface layer of the soil actually thaws and water from ice that melts cannot drain away, so that many areas become flooded and marshes are formed. Rainfall in these regions is low – 250 mm per year – and the rate of evaporation is low, which adds to the impossibility of water draining away.
• Tundra vegetation is therefore adapted to low temperatures and superfluous water. Plants grow quickly. The plants, which come to life in the summer and develop as if overnight, are mosses, lichens, ferns, low shrubs, grass and flowering plants. Animal life is also adapted to the natural conditions. The most common animals of this biome are reindeer, wolves and bears.
• The area is sparsely populated. The Eskimos of Greenland are one of the nomadic groups of people that inhabit the Tundra.
• The Ice deserts / Polar deserts are the uninhabitable areas that comprise Antarctica (6 ^th continent), large parts of Greenland, the Northern Arctic Sea and mountain tops with a perennial cover of snow. These ice deserts do not form part of the Tundra biome.
• These areas are too cold for vegetation. Land animals are also absent, however sea animals such as polar bears, whales, seals and sea elephants are plentiful. A variety of birds have their breeding colonies in these areas.

Activity 5:

To do research on antarctica and describe the climatic conditions of the ice deserts

[lo 1.5]

Describe the climatic conditions that prevail in the ice deserts after having done research on Antarctica.

Assessment