What Is the Tundra?

What Is the Tundra? — page 1 — WelCome to the tundra All the land on Earth can be divided into biomes Each biome is a large region that has a certain climate and certain types of living things The tundra is one kind of biome A tropical rainforest is another example of a biome The tundra is very different from a tropical rainforest though The tundra is a large barren region with no trees Large areas of tundra lie between the permanent ice of the far north and the northern forests of North America Europe and Musk oxen graze on the tundra in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve in western Alaska 4

What Is the Tundra? — page 2 — Asia They cover about 20 percent of Earth’s surface They are some of the coldest places on Earth Vocabulary There are two types of tundra They are the Arctic tundra and the alpine tundra Arctic tundra lies in northern Europe Russia Alaska Canada and Greenland Alpine tundra is found high on mountaintops where trees cannot grow This map shows the world’s major biomes 5 In a barren region there are not many living things

What Is the Tundra? — page 3 — the Coldest Biome The tundra is a cold dry biome It may be flat hilly or mountainous Little plant life grows there Tundra in coastal areas tends to be foggy Snow covers the tundra for more than six months of the year In the Arctic tundra the winter temperature may be as low as 25 degrees Fahrenheit 32 degrees Celsius The summer temperature may rise to only 40 F 4 C The ground experiences a constant cycle of freezing Alpine tundra is often mountainous like this area in Alaska 6

What Is the Tundra? — page 4 — Think About It The sun’s heat causes water to evaporate or to change from a liquid into a gas Why do you think there is little evaporation in the Arctic tundra in winter and thawing in summer Because of the cold temperatures the Arctic tundra has a permanent layer of frozen soil called permafrost under the surface Some permafrost reaches as deep as 1,500 feet 457 meters Because of the permafrost little drainage takes place in the Arctic tundra Since there is not much evaporation what water there is tends to collect in bogs and ponds The Alaska Range looms over the bogs of Alaska’s Delta Wild and Scenic River Watershed 7

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