INVESTIGATING EARTH's PoLAR BIOMES type such as a forest grassland or des ert The Arctic can be defined as the area within the Arctic Circle which extends 1 650 miles 2 660 kilometers from the geo graphic North Pole Or it can be defined asthenorthern areainwhichthe meantemper ature for the warmest month is less than 50 °F 10 °C The pole itself is covered with ice under that ice is not land but the Arctic Ocean though the amount and thickness of the ice varies from season to season But there are land areas that are con sidered part of the Arctic region as well from Alaska and Canada to Russia and Scandinavia These regions have special kinds of cold weather ecosystems such as boreal northern forests and large regions of permafrost or permanently frozen ground They are also home to a number of native peoples who have been explorers of the region in their own right from the Inuit peo ple who have traditionally hunted and fished in Greenland Canada northern Alaska and Russia to the Sami people who continue to herd reindeer in frigid parts of Scandinavia Unlike the Arctic the other polar biome you will explore is a continent But only two percent of Antarctica s land can be seen by the naked eye The rest is covered by a
INTRODUCTION thick ice sheet which at one point is almost 3 miles 5 kilometers deep It contains 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of the world's fresh water Because it is on land not water Antarctica is even colder than the Arctic region The world's record low tem perature of 28 6 °F 89 2 °C was recorded there The coast can be extremely windy with gusts of nearly 200 miles 320 kilome ters per hour Antarctica s interior is one of the world's major cold deserts Precipitation averages only 1 to 2 inches 2 5 to 5 centime ters a year Little survives in Antarctica s interior except for a few tiny creatures such as mites But the ocean that surrounds it is teeming with life including krill which feed whales seals and penguins Antarctic cod have blood that lets them live in seawater as cold as 28 °F 2 °C People still have the desire to conquer and understand new frontiers Every summer about 25 nations send approximately four thousand scientists to Antarctica to conduct research including studying the continent's weather climate and mineral resources As you read this volume you too will come to understand why people are still fascinated by these icy
CHAPTER 1 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS vital zone between North America's and Russia's northernmost frontiers consists of the Arctic regions Once only explorers traders and Inuit or Eskimo hunters were interested in the vast icy area at the top of the world Today because of its strategic location and its value to scientists the Arctic is the scene of much activity Year round scientific research stations are maintained to study weather cli mate and mineral resources of the Arctic In addition the Arctic is studded with air bases constant reminders that the shortest air routes between the United States and Russia are over the area Only a narrow channel sep arates Little Diomede Island of the United States from Big Diomede Island Ostrov Ratmanova which is Russian territory With the technological advances in icebreaker ships and nuclear powered submarines the distances between the two countries seem even shorter IO
GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS RUSSIA sea of Okhotsk Nordvik Ungolinaya FINLAND Barents Sea SIberian is Josef NORWA ARCTIC Svalbard Wrangel L NORTH POLE Greenland Bering sea Sea OCEAN GREENLAND The DENMARK IU S Dayani PACIFIC OCEAN Actoria Yellowknife ATLANTIC ampton Arctic Regions o CE AN Churchill Hudson Bay 200 400 600 800 1000 mi CANADA CANADA O400 800 1200 100 km A coauPTION MA The average location of the 50 °F 10 °C July isotherm in the Northern Hemisphere the climatological limit of the Arctic An isotherm is a line drawn on a map or chart joining points with the same temperature The Arctic is sometimes defined as the area that lies within the Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is a parallel of latitude 66° 30 N latitude 1 650 miles 2 660 kilometers II
