tundra

The term is a Russian word adapted from the Sámi languages,{{cite web |last=Aapala |first=Kirsti |title=Tunturista jängälle |trans-title=From fell to mountain |url=http://www.kotus.fi/julkaisut/ikkunat/1999/kielii1999_19.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001211854/http://www.kotus.fi/julkaisut/ikkunat/1999/kielii1999_19.shtml |archive-date=2006-10-01 |access-date=17 January 2024 |language=fi}} specifically from the Kildin Sámi word tūndâr, meaning "treeless plain".

== Arctic ==

{{anchor|Arctic tundra}}

{{see also|Arctic vegetation}}

Arctic tundra occurs in the far Northern Hemisphere, north of the taiga belt. The word "tundra" usually refers only to the areas where the subsoil is permafrost, or permanently frozen soil. (It may also refer to the treeless plain in general so that northern Sápmi would be included.) Permafrost tundra includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada. The polar tundra is home to several peoples who are mostly nomadic reindeer herders, such as the Nganasan and Nenets in the permafrost area (and the Sami in Sápmi).

File:Tundra in Siberia.jpg]]

Arctic tundra contains areas of stark landscape and is frozen for much of the year.{{Cite web |title=Tundra Biome |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/tundra-biome |access-date=2024-04-04 |publisher=National Geographic}} The soil there is frozen from {{cvt|25|to|90|cm|0}} down, making it impossible for trees to grow there. Instead, bare and sometimes rocky land can only support certain kinds of Arctic vegetation, low-growing plants such as moss, heath (Ericaceae varieties such as crowberry and black bearberry), and lichen.

There are two main seasons, winter and summer, in the polar tundra areas. During the winter it is very cold, dark, and windy with the average temperature around {{cvt|-28|C}}, sometimes dipping as low as {{cvt|-50|C}}. However, extreme cold temperatures on the tundra generally do not drop as low as those experienced in taiga areas further south (for example, Russia's, Canada's, and Alaska's lowest temperatures were recorded in locations south of the tree line). During the summer, temperatures rise somewhat, and the top layer of seasonally-frozen soil melts, leaving the ground very soggy. The tundra is covered in marshes, lakes, bogs, and streams during the warm months. Generally daytime temperatures during the summer rise to about {{cvt|12|C}} but can often drop to {{cvt|3|C}} or even below freezing. Arctic tundras are sometimes the subject of habitat conservation programs. In Canada and Russia, many of these areas are protected through a national Biodiversity Action Plan.

File:Vontut National Park.jpg in Canada]]

Tundra tends to be windy, with winds often blowing upwards of {{cvt|50|-|100|kph}}. However, it is desert-like, with only about {{cvt|150|-|250|mm|0}} of precipitation falling per year (the summer is typically the season of maximum precipitation). Although precipitation is light, evaporation is also relatively minimal. During the summer, the permafrost thaws just enough to let plants grow and reproduce, but because the ground below this is frozen, the water cannot sink any lower, so the water forms the lakes and marshes found during the summer months. There is a natural pattern of accumulation of fuel and wildfire which varies depending on the nature of vegetation and terrain. Research in Alaska has shown fire-event return intervals (FRIs) that typically vary from 150 to 200 years, with dryer lowland areas burning more frequently than wetter highland areas.{{cite journal |first2=Melissa L. |last2=Chipman |first3=Jennifer L. |last3=Barnes |first4=Michael A. |last4=Urban |first5=Feng Sheng |last5=Hu |name-list-style=amp |title=Variability of tundra fire regimes in Arctic Alaska: millennial-scale patterns and ecological implications |journal=Ecological Applications |date=December 2011 |volume=21 |issue=8 |pages=3211–3226 |doi=10.1890/11-0387.1 |issn=1051-0761 |display-authors=4 |last1=Higuera |first1=Philip E.|bibcode=2011EcoAp..21.3211H }}

File:CAKR muskox lazily graze in the Kakagrak Hills. (34900059504).jpgen in the Kakagrak Hills, Alaska]]

The biodiversity of tundras is low: 1,700 species of vascular plants and only 48 species of land mammals can be found, although millions of birds migrate there each year for the marshes.{{cite web |url=http://www.ibacanada.com/site.jsp?siteID=NU078&seedet=N |title=Great Plain of the Koukdjuak |publisher=Ibacanada.com |access-date=16 February 2011}} There are also a few fish species. There are few species with large populations. Notable plants in the Arctic tundra include blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina), lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), and Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum). Notable animals include reindeer (caribou), musk ox, Arctic hare, Arctic fox, snowy owl, ptarmigan, northern red-backed voles, lemmings, the mosquito,{{cite web |url=https://www.esa.org/blog/2020/08/04/where-are-arctic-mosquitoes-most-abundant-in-greenland-and-why |publisher=Ecological Society of America |date=4 August 2020 |title=Where Are Arctic Mosquitoes Most Abundant in Greenland and Why?}} and even polar bears near the ocean.{{cite web |title=Tundra |work=Lake Clark National Park & Preserve |publisher=NPS |url=https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/nature/tundra.htm |access-date=18 October 2021}}{{cite web |title=Tundra |work=Blue Planet Biomes |url=http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/tundra.htm |access-date=5 March 2006}} Tundra is largely devoid of poikilotherms such as frogs or lizards.

Due to the harsh climate of Arctic tundra, regions of this kind have seen little human activity, even though they are sometimes rich in natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, and uranium. In recent times this has begun to change in Alaska, Russia, and some other parts of the world: for example, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug produces 90% of Russia's natural gas.

{{See also|Permafrost carbon cycle#Carbon release from the permafrost}}

File:Permafrost in Herschel Island 014.jpg

A severe threat to tundra is global warming, which causes permafrost to thaw. The thawing of the permafrost in a given area on human time scales (decades or centuries) could radically change which species can survive there.{{cite web |title=Tundra Threats |work=National Geographic |url=http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/tundra-threats.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207072624/http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/tundra-threats.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 December 2008 |access-date=3 April 2008}} It also represents a significant risk to infrastructure built on top of permafrost, such as roads and pipelines.

In locations where dead vegetation and peat have accumulated, there is a risk of wildfire, such as the {{cvt|1039|km2}} of tundra which burned in 2007 on the north slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska.{{cite news |title=As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/science/earth/warming-arctic-permafrost-fuels-climate-change-worries.html |access-date=17 December 2011 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=16 December 2011 |first=Justin |last=Gillis}} Such events may both result from and contribute to global warming.{{cite journal |first1=Michelle C. |last1=Mack |author1-link=Michelle Cailin Mack |first2=M. Syndonia |last2=Bret-Harte |first3=Teresa N. |last3=Hollingsworth |first4=Randi R. |last4=Jandt |first5=Edward A. G. |last5=Schuur |first6=Gaius R. |last6=Shaver |first7=David L. |last7=Verbyla |display-authors=4 |title=Carbon loss from an unprecedented Arctic tundra wildfire |journal=Nature |date=28 July 2011 |volume=475 |issue=7357 |pages=489–492 |doi=10.1038/nature10283 |pmid=21796209 |url=http://www.environmentportal.in/files/file/wildfires.pdf |access-date=20 July 2012 |bibcode=2011Natur.475..489M |s2cid=4371811 |archive-date=14 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114001622/http://www.environmentportal.in/files/file/wildfires.pdf |url-status=dead}}

Carbon emissions from permafrost thaw contribute to the same warming which facilitates the thaw, making it a positive climate change feedback. The warming also intensifies Arctic water cycle, and the increased amounts of warmer rain are another factor which increases permafrost thaw depths.{{Cite journal |last1=Douglas |first1=Thomas A. |last2=Turetsky |first2=Merritt R. |last3=Koven |first3=Charles D. |date=24 July 2020 |title=Increased rainfall stimulates permafrost thaw across a variety of Interior Alaskan boreal ecosystems |journal=npj Climate and Atmospheric Science |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=5626 |doi=10.1038/s41612-020-0130-4 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020npCAS...3...28D }}

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report estimates that carbon dioxide and methane released from permafrost could amount to the equivalent of 14–175 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per {{cvt|1|C-change}} of warming.{{cite book|last1=Fox-Kemper|first1=B|display-authors=et al|year=2021|chapter-url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter09.pdf|chapter=Chapter 9: Ocean, Cryosphere and Sea Level Change|url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/|title=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|doi=10.1017/9781009157896.011|page=1237}} For comparison, by 2019, annual anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide alone stood around 40 billion tonnes. A 2018 perspectives article discussing tipping points in the climate system activated around {{cvt|2|C-change}} of global warming suggested that at this threshold, permafrost thaw would add a further {{cvt|0.09|C-change|2}} to global temperatures by 2100, with a range of {{cvt|0.04-0.16|C-change|2}}{{Cite journal |last1=Schellnhuber |first1=Hans Joachim |display-authors=et al|date=2018 |title=Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=115 |issue=33 |pages=8252–8259 |bibcode=2018PNAS..115.8252S |doi=10.1073/pnas.1810141115 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=6099852 |pmid=30082409 |doi-access=free}}

{{anchor|Antarctic tundra}}

File:11 Le Mont Werth (908m) devant le Ross.jpg

Antarctic tundra occurs on Antarctica and on several Antarctic and subantarctic islands, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Kerguelen Islands. Most of Antarctica is too cold and dry to support vegetation, and most of the continent is covered by ice fields or cold deserts. However, some portions of the continent, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula, have areas of rocky soil that support plant life. The flora presently consists of around 300–400 species of lichens, 100 mosses, 25 liverworts, and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algae species, which live on the areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent. Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis), are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula.{{cite web |title=Terrestrial Plants |work=British Antarctic Survey: About Antarctica |url=http://www.antarctica.ac.uk//about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/ |access-date=5 March 2006}}

In contrast with the Arctic tundra, the Antarctic tundra lacks a large mammal fauna, mostly due to its physical isolation from the other continents. Sea mammals and sea birds, including seals and penguins, inhabit areas near the shore, and some small mammals, like rabbits and cats, have been introduced by humans to some of the subantarctic islands. The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion includes the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands, the Campbell Island group, and Macquarie Island.{{WWF ecoregion|id=aa1101 |name=Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra |access-date=2 November 2009}} Species endemic to this ecoregion include Corybas dienemus and Corybas sulcatus, the only subantarctic orchids; the royal penguin; and the Antipodean albatross.

There is some ambiguity on whether Magellanic moorland, on the west coast of Patagonia, should be considered tundra or not.{{cite book|last=Longton|first=R.E. |date=1988 |title=Biology of Polar Bryophytes and Lichen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=20 |isbn=978-0-521-25015-3 |series=Studies in Polar Research}} Phytogeographer Edmundo Pisano called it tundra ({{langx|es|tundra Magallánica}}) since he considered the low temperatures key to restrict plant growth. More recent approaches have since recognized it as a temperate grassland, restricting southern tundra to coastal Antarctica and its islands.{{cite journal|last=Olson|first=David M.|title = Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth |journal = BioScience |year = 2011 |volume = 51 |issue = 11 |pages = 933–938 |doi = 10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0933:TEOTWA]2.0.CO;2 |doi-access = free|display-authors=etal}}{{cite journal|last=Dinerstein|first=Eric|display-authors=etal|year=2017|title=An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm|journal=BioScience|volume=67|issue=6|pages=534–545|doi=10.1093/biosci/bix014|doi-access=free|pmid=28608869 |pmc=5451287}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.oneearth.org/bioregions/patagonia-steppe-low-mountains-nt2/|title=Patagonia Steppe & Low Mountains Bioregion|website=One Earth}}

The flora and fauna of Antarctica and the Antarctic Islands (south of 60° south latitude) are protected by the Antarctic Treaty.{{cite web |title=Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty |work=British Antarctic Survey: About Antarctica |url=http://www.antarctica.ac.uk//about_antarctica/geopolitical/treaty/ |access-date=5 March 2006}}

{{anchor|Alpine tundra}}

{{main|Alpine tundra}}

File:Sahale Peak.jpg of Washington, United States]]

Alpine tundra does not contain trees because the climate and soils at high altitude block tree growth.{{cite book |first=D.L. |last=Elliott-Fisk |chapter=The Taiga and Boreal Forest |editor1-first=M.G. |editor1-last=Barbour |editor2-first=M.D. |editor2-last=Billings |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-521-55986-7 |title=North American Terrestrial Vegetation}}{{rp|51}} The cold climate of the alpine tundra is caused by the low air temperatures, and is similar to polar climate. Alpine tundra is generally better drained than arctic soils.{{cite web |url=https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/tundra.php |title=The tundra biome |publisher=University of California Museum of Paleontology |access-date=11 September 2020}} Alpine tundra transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone (the treeline) are known as Krummholz. Alpine tundra can be affected by woody plant encroachment.{{Cite journal |last1=Marsman |first1=Floor |last2=Nystuen |first2=Kristin O. |last3=Opedal |first3=Øystein H. |last4=Foest |first4=Jessie J. |last5=Sørensen |first5=Mia Vedel |last6=De Frenne |first6=Pieter |last7=Graae |first7=Bente Jessen |last8=Limpens |first8=Juul |date=January 2021 |editor-last=Pugnaire |editor-first=Francisco |title=Determinants of tree seedling establishment in alpine tundra |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvs.12948 |journal=Journal of Vegetation Science |language=en |volume=32 |issue=1 |doi=10.1111/jvs.12948 |bibcode=2021JVegS..32E2948M |issn=1100-9233|hdl=11250/2733966 |hdl-access=free }}

Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide. The flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by plants that grow close to the ground, including perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses, and lichens.{{Cite book |first=Christian |last=Körner |title=Alpine Plant Life: Functional Plant Ecology of High Mountain Ecosystems |place=Berlin |publisher=Springer |year=2003 |isbn=978-3-540-00347-2}} The flora is adapted to the harsh conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation, and a short growing season.

{{main|Tundra climate|Alpine climate}}

File:Kongsfjorden from Blomstrandhalvoja.jpg.]]

Tundra climates ordinarily fit the Köppen climate classification ET, signifying a local climate in which at least one month has an average temperature high enough to melt snow ({{cvt|0|C}}), but no month with an average temperature in excess of {{cvt|10|C}}.{{cite journal |last1=Kottek |first1=Markus |last2=Grieser |first2=Jürgen |last3=Beck |first3=Christoph |last4=Rudolf |first4=Bruno |last5=Rubel |first5=Franz |year=2006 |title=World Map of the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification Updated |journal=Meteorol. Z. |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=259–263 |doi=10.1127/0941-2948/2006/0130 |bibcode=2006MetZe..15..259K |url=https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-opus4-400838}} The cold limit generally meets the EF climates of permanent ice and snows; the warm-summer limit generally corresponds with the poleward or altitudinal limit of trees,{{cite web |url=https://geodiode.com/climate/tundra |title=Tundra |website=geodiode.com|date=September 2011 }} where they grade into the subarctic climates designated Dfd, Dwd and Dsd (extreme winters as in parts of Siberia), Dfc typical in Alaska, Canada, mountain areas of Scandinavia, European Russia, and Western Siberia (cold winters with months of freezing).{{cite journal |last1=Peel |first1=M.C. |last2=Finlayson |first2=B.L. |last3=McMahon |first3=T.A. |year=2007 |title=Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification |journal=Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=1633–1644 |doi=10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007 |bibcode=2007HESS...11.1633P |s2cid=9654551|doi-access=free }}

Despite the potential diversity of climates in the ET category involving precipitation, extreme temperatures, and relative wet and dry seasons, this category is rarely subdivided. Rainfall and snowfall are generally slight due to the low vapor pressure of water in the chilly atmosphere, but as a rule potential evapotranspiration is extremely low, allowing soggy terrain of swamps and bogs even in places that get precipitation typical of deserts of lower and middle latitudes.{{cite web |url=https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/biome/biotundra.php |title=Tundra |work=Earth Observatory |publisher=NASA |accessdate=11 September 2022}} The amount of native tundra biomass depends more on the local temperature than the amount of precipitation.{{cite journal |last1=Keuper |first1=F. |last2=Parmentier |first2=F.J. |last3=Blok |first3=D. |last4=van Bodegom |first4=P.M. |last5=Dorrepaal |first5=E. |last6=van Hal |first6=J.R. |last7=van Logtestijn |first7=R.S. |last8=Aerts |first8=R. |title=Tundra in the rain: differential vegetation responses to three years of experimentally doubled summer precipitation in Siberian shrub and Swedish bog tundra |journal=Ambio |year=2012 |volume=41 Suppl 3(Suppl 3) |issue=Suppl 3 |pages=269–80 |doi=10.1007/s13280-012-0305-2 |pmid=22864700 |pmc=3535056|bibcode=2012Ambio..41S.269K }}

• Alas
• Fellfield
• List of tundra ecoregions from the WWF
• Mammoth steppe
• Park Tundra

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book |last1=Allaby |first1=Michael |last2=Moore |first2=Peter D. |last3=Day |first3=Trevor |last4=Garratt |first4=Richard |date=2008 |title=Tundra |url=https://archive.org/details/tundra0000moor |url-access=registration |quote=Tundra. |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0-8160-5934-8}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bliss |first=L. C |author2=O. W. Heal |author3=J. J. Moore |date=1981 |title=Tundra Ecosystems: A Comparative Analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mK48AAAAIAAJ&q=Tundra&pg=PP1 |publisher=International Biological Programme Synthesis Series (No. 25) |isbn=978-0-521-22776-6}}
• {{Cite book |last=Warhol |first=Tom |date=2007 |title=Tundra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYUc7o43cuAC&q=Tundra&pg=PP1 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish Benchmark |isbn=978-0-7614-2193-1}}
• {{Cite book |last=Yu I |first=Chernov |date=1998 |title=The Living Tundra;Studies in Polar Research |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agc5AAAAIAAJ&q=Tundra&pg=PP1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-35754-8}}

{{refend}}

• [http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/about/habitat_types/selecting_terrestrial_ecoregions/habitat11.cfm WWF Tundra Ecoregions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223091305/http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/about/habitat_types/selecting_terrestrial_ecoregions/habitat11.cfm |date=23 February 2010 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20011004081203/http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/tundra.html The Arctic biome at Classroom of the Future]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720194120/http://kaares.ulapland.fi/home/arktinen/tundra/tundra.htm Arctic Feedbacks to Global Warming: Tundra Degradation in the Russian Arctic]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051225213602/http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/About_Antarctica/Wildlife/Plants/ British Antarctica Survey]
• [http://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/an1101 Antarctica: West of the Transantarctic Mountains]
• [https://databayou.com/world/tundra.html World Map of Tundra]

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