circumpolar distribution

{{Short description|Species distribution extending around the North or South pole}}

File:Polar bear range map.png encircles the North Pole.]]

A circumpolar distribution is any range of a taxon that occurs over a wide range of longitudes but only at high latitudes; such a range therefore extends all the way around either the North Pole or the South Pole.{{cite book |author=Vladimir Kotlyakov & Anna Komarova |year=2006 |title=Elsevier's Dictionary of Geography: in English, Russian, French, Spanish and German |publisher=Elsevier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DhWw_cYLicC&pg=PA119 |page=119|isbn=9780080488783 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095613321 |title=Circumpolar distribution |work=Oxford Reference |publisher=Oxford University Press |accessdate=November 19, 2014}} Taxa that are also found in isolated high-mountain environments further from the poles are said to have arctic–alpine distributions.{{cite book |author=Peter D. Moore |year=2009 |title=Tundra |series=Ecosystem Series |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438118727 |chapter=Types of tundra |pages=64–85 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdA8qT5KZvkC&pg=PA66}}

Animals with circumpolar distributions include the reindeer, polar bear,{{cite book |editor=T. Kue Young |year=2011 |title=Circumpolar Health Atlas |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-4456-4 |chapter=Plants and animals |pages=21–33 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwlYiuPAX-UC&pg=PT31}} Arctic fox,{{cite book |author=Y. I. Chernov |year=1988 |title=The Living Tundra |series=Studies in Polar Research |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521357548 |chapter=Distribution of animals and plants |pages=101–118 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agc5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA106}} snowy owl, snow bunting, king eider, brent goose and long-tailed skua in the north, and the Weddell seal and Adélie penguin in the south.

Plants with northern circumpolar distributions include Eutrema edwardsii (syn. Draba laevigata), Saxifraga oppositifolia, Persicaria vivipara{{cite book |author=Roger L. Williams |year=2002 |title=A Guide To Rocky Mountain Plants |publisher=Roberts Rinehart |isbn=9781461733492 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BVnyAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA105}} and Honckenya peploides.{{cite thesis |author=Julia Sánchez Vilas |year=2007 |title=Sexual dimorphism in ecological and physiological traits in the subdioecious dune plant Honckenya peploides (L.) Ehrh. |publisher=Universidade de Santiago de Compostela |hdl=10347/2341}}{{cite book|last=Hultén |first=Eric |date=1962 |title=The circumpolar plants. 1, Vascular cryptogams, conifers, monocotyledons|location=Stockholm, Sweden |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell }}{{cite book |last=Hultén |first=Eric |date=1971 |title=The circumpolar plants. 2, Dicotyledons|location=Stockholm, Sweden |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell }}