What makes the tundra important

Tundra form in two distinct cold and dry regions. Arctic tundra are found on high-latitude landmasses, above the Arctic Circle—in Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia, for example—or on far southern regions, like Antarctica. Alpine tundra are located at very high elevations atop mountains, where overnight temperatures fall below freezing.

Tundra regions typically get less than 25 centimeters 10 inches of precipitation annually, which means these areas are also considered deserts. They have long, cold winters with high winds and average temperatures below freezing for six to ten months of the year.

On average, only six to ten weeks of the year have sufficiently warm temperatures and long days for plant growth. The soil in the Arctic is largely permafrost or soil that remains frozen year-round, leaving only a thin surface layer of thawed soil in summer for plant roots to grow in.

Tundra soil is also scarce in many of the nutrients that plants need to grow. Instead, the tundra has patchy, low-to-ground vegetation consisting of small shrubs, grasses, mosses, sedges, and lichens, all of which are better adapted to withstand tundra conditions. Animals in the tundra are also adapted to extreme conditions, and they take advantage of the temporary explosion of plant and insect life in the short growing season. Tundra wildlife includes small mammals—such as Norway lemmings Lemmus lemmus , arctic hares Lepis arcticus , and arctic ground squirrels Spermophilus parryii —and large mammals, such as caribou Rangifer tarandus.

These animals build up stores of fat to sustain and insulate them through the winter. They also have thick coats of fur for further insulation. Some save energy by hibernating during the long winter months. Others migrate to warmer climes during winter. Many birds also migrate into the tundra during the growing season to feed, mate, and nest.

Atop the food chain are tundra carnivores, such as arctic foxes Vulpes lagopus , arctic wolves Canis lupus , snowy owls Bubo scandiaca , and polar bears Ursus maritimus , which move into the tundra during the summer when prey is plentiful and their usual hunting grounds on sea ice diminish. Click to see full answer. Simply so, what is important about the tundra? The arctic tundra has several distinct features that make it a unique habitat. The thin layer of top soil in the arctic tundra thaws during the summer months, but beneath that the ground is permanently frozen.

Additionally, why you should go to the tundra? Low temperatures, permafrost, and little nutrients in the soil prevent most forms of vegetation from growing. The tundra offers some beautiful views and interesting wildlife for visitors willing to brave the arctic cold.

Humans can help protect tundra ecosystems in a variety of ways. Reducing or banning certain types of industrial activity would decrease harm to native plants, lichens and permafrost. Switching to alternative energy sources instead of oil or natural gas would limit the need for mining in the tundra. Facts about the Tundra Biome The word tundra comes from a Finnish word tunturi, which means treeless plain or barren land.

The tundra is a very fragile biome that is shrinking as the permafrost melts. Lemmings are small mammals that burrow under the snow to eat grasses and moss during the winter. Importance of the Tundra. What would happen if the tundra melted? Scientists generally agree that higher temperatures increase the likelihood of collapses of long-frozen Arctic ground, or permafrost, creating large holes in the tundra and landslides. Lakes and ponds are evaporating or draining away.

The Arctic's permafrost, the literal foundation for much of the region's unique ecosystem, is deteriorating with the warmer global climate. Permafrost is a layer of frozen soil and dead plants that extends some 1, feet meters below the surface. In much of the Arctic, it is frozen year-round. In the southern regions of the Arctic, the surface layer above the permafrost melts during the summer, and this forms bogs and shallow lakes that invite an explosion of animal life.

Insects swarm around the bogs, and millions of migrating birds come to feed on them. With global warming, the fall freeze comes later— in some places recently, not at all —and more of the permafrost is melting in the southern Arctic. Shrubs and spruce that previously couldn't take root on the permafrost now dot the landscape, potentially altering the habitat of the native animals. Another major concern is that the melting of the permafrost is contributing to global warming.

The frozen ground contains about one and a half times the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere today , as well as large amounts of methane , another potent greenhouse gas. Until recently, the tundra acted as a carbon sink and captured huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of photosynthesis. That process helped keep the amount of this greenhouse gas from accumulating in the atmosphere.

Today, however, as the permafrost melts and dead plant material decomposes and releases greenhouse gases, the tundra has flipped from a carbon sink to a carbon contributor. That means not only is the planet less capable of preventing greenhouse gases from accumulating, but the tundra is also contributing to their buildup.

Scientists are still learning about what else the permafrost harbors, and what could be released as it thaws. Recently a study found that it is also the largest store of mercury on the planet and could release the toxic heavy metal into the environment, to harmful effect. All rights reserved. There's actually more life in the tundra than you might realize, particularly during the summer when the long arctic days deliver a manic growing season. The fact that the tundra is home to a variety of plants and animals is reason enough to call the tundra important, but this region of the world has other characteristics vital to life as we know it.

While the surface layer of soil in the tundra does thaw during the summer - allowing plant and animal life to thrive - there is permanently frozen soil beneath this layer. Permafrost can vary in thickness from one to 1, meters that is, from roughly three to 3, feet. This frozen ground has proven vital to tracking climate change through the centuries, as any temperature change leaves its mark on the permafrost. Permafrost has also alerted scientists to the rapid environmental changes happening since the industrial revolution.

The rainforest is often called "the earth's lungs," because the extremely high plant density is responsible for converting a lot of the world's carbon dioxide into oxygen.

A similar claim can be made about the tundra - it is the earth's carbon sink. Because a lot of otherwise fertile land is permafrost, the tundra contains a lot of carbon that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere.

Scientists predict that if global temperatures continue to increase, much of this carbon actually will be released, creating a positive feedback cycle that could result in accelerating the increase in global temperatures. The tundra begins at the tree line.