A biome of the far north and the highest mountains, too cold for trees to grow at all, characterized by a short summer growing season and, across most of the Arctic tundra, a layer of permanently frozen subsoil called permafrost that keeps meltwater from draining away and produces the biome's characteristic wet, hummocky ground. Vegetation is limited to low shrubs, grasses, mosses and lichens close to the ground, and the animals that live here year-round, such as the gray wolf's northern populations, carry heavy insulation and, often, seasonal coat color change. Antarctica's ice-free coastal fringe, where species such as the emperor penguin breed, shares the tundra biome's cold, low-precipitation character even though it is formally its own polar desert.
Facts
Climate
Annual Precipitation (mm) Typical Low Temperature (C) Typical High Temperature (C) Connections
Demonstrates
The tundra biome sits mainly within the high-latitude auroral oval, the band where aurora is visible on the greatest number of nights per year, making it the biome most closely associated with regularly observing the phenomenon.
Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Home To
Source Antarctic Peninsula (Wikipedia)
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source World Wildlife Fund
Antarctica's ice-free coastal fringe, where emperor penguins breed, is formally its own polar desert rather than tundra proper, but shares the tundra biome's cold, low-precipitation character; the atlas's founding seven biomes do not yet include a dedicated polar-ice type.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source World Wildlife Fund
Sources
1. Tundra Biome (National Geographic Education)
National Geographic EducationTundra Biome - PrecipitationQuote, Tundra Biome - Precipitation
Tundra regions typically get less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of precipitation annually.
2. Tundra Climate (Blue Planet Biomes)
Blue Planet BiomesTundra Climate - Summer Temperatures
It never gets any warmer than 45 or 50 F.
Tundra Climate - Winter Temperatures
Winter temperatures don't reach above 20 F and average -20 to -30F.
View the Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.britannica.com/science/tundra, opening definition
tundra, a major zone of treeless level or rolling ground found in cold regions, mostly north of the Arctic Circle (Arctic tundra) or above the timberline on high mountains (alpine tundra). Tundra is known for large stretches of bare ground and rock and for patchy mantles of low vegetation such as mosses, lichens, herbs, and small shrubs. This surface supports a meagre but unique variety of animals. The Finns called their treeless northern reaches the tunturi, but the concept of a vast frozen plain as a special ecological realm called tundra was developed by the Russians.
- Home To: Emperor Penguin
- Home To: Arctic Tern
View the Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Antarctic Peninsula (Wikipedia)
World Wildlife Fund
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
The Koppen climate classification, the standard reference scheme this entry's own hedge implicitly gestures toward, draws a firm line this entry does not fully draw: ET (tundra) requires at least one month averaging above freezing, while EF (ice cap, sometimes called polar desert) has no month above freezing at all. By Koppen's own criteria the two are separate climate classes, not one biome with a footnote; this entry's inclusion of Antarctica's ice-free coastal fringe under Tundra, while noting in its own prose that the area is "formally its own polar desert," is the simplified convention, not the only one a foundational climate classification supports.
A dissenting reading, from Wladimir KoppenEncyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
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