The tundra biome is characterized by extremely low temperatures, little precipitation, poor nutrients, and short growing seasons. It is separated into Arctic and alpine tundra. Arctic tundra occurs at high latitudes and has cold, desert-like conditions with permafrost and simple vegetation adapted to the harsh climate. Alpine tundra occurs at high elevations with little permafrost and drier, steeper areas. Both have simple plant structures and low diversity due to the severe environmental conditions.

1. TUNDRA

2.  tunturi (Finnish) means “a treeless
plain”
 Coldest of all biomes
 extremely low temperatures
 little precipitation
 poor nutrients
 short growing seasons
 Simple vegetation

3. Where is it found?

4. Tundra is separated into two types:
Arctic tundra
Alpine tundra

5. Arctic tundra

6. Arctic tundra
 at high latitude
 cold, desert-like conditions
 A land dotted with lakes and crossed by streams where
ground is low and moist
 On high drier areas where ground is bare and rock-
covered, vegetation is scant and scattered
 permafrost

7. frost hummocks
 Rounded knoll of ice
 Caused by slow and
unequal pressure in
the main body of the
packed ice

8. Frost boil
 Continuous thawing and freezing
pushes fragments of stone
outward in a ringed patterns

9. Earth stripes
 Exaggerated stretching
of frost boils produces
parallel strands of
rocks and soil

10. stone polygons

11. Alpine tundra

12. Alpine tundra
 At high altitudes
 Mostly confined to very high elevations
 Little permafrost
 Soils are drier
 Higher precipitation than in Arctic Tundra
 Steep topography induces a rapid runoff of water

13. Abiotic
Temperature
Soil
Wind and water
Nutrients

14. Temperature
 short summer days ; very long and cold winters
 The alpine tundra is also cold, but not nearly as cold as
the arctic.
 Temperatures at night are almost always below
freezing, but daytime temperatures still permit plant
growth for about half the year.
 limits the types of species that can live there

15. Soil
 Inactive layer (permafrost)
 If the permafrost melts, it alters the temperature and
topography of a region, which threatens the existence of
many species living in the tundra.
 Active layer (top of the permafrost)
 thaws in the summer months which allows vegetation to
grow and enables the chemical processes necessary for
sustaining life to occur.

16. Wind and water
 extremely windy and have small amounts of rainfall
 high winds make it difficult for any large plant species
to survive
 Despite the low rainfall, the arctic has high humidity,
because water is slow to evaporate

17. Nutrients
 Phosphorous and nitrogen are the major nutrients that
exist in the tundra biome
 Precipitation produces phosphorous, while a bio-
chemical process creates nitrogen.
 Through photosynthesis, plants harvest energy from
the sun, which they use to absorb these key nutrients
and grow.

18. Simple Structure and Low
Diversity Characterize the
Vegetation of Tundra

19. •Vegetation – simple; although it appears
homogeneous, the pattern of vegetation is patchy.
The combination of micro relief, snowmelt,
frost heaving, and aspect, among other conditions,
produces an endless change in plant associations
from spot to spot.
•Number of Species – few
•Growth- slow
•Biomass and functional activity are confined
to a few groups.

20. Arctic
Only those species able to withstand
constant disturbance of the soil,
buffeting by the wind,
and abrasion from wind- carried
particle of soil
and ice can survive.

21. •Low ground- cotton grass, sedge, dwarf heath, sphagnum moss
Complex.
•Well drained sites- heath shrubs, dwarf willows and birches,
Dryland sedges and rushes, herbs, mosses, and lichens.
•Driest and most exposed sites-
(flat topped domes, rolling hills, low lying terraces)- sparse vegetation,
Scattered heaths and mats of dryads, crustose and foliose lichens.

22. Alpine Tundra
The environment is even MORE severe
for plants. It is a land of strong
winds, snow, cold, and widely
fluctuating temperatures.

23. Rocky strewn slopes, bogs, alpine meadows,
and shrubby thickets.
Cushion and mat- forming plants , rare in Arctic,
are important in the Alpine Tundra
Low, and ground hugging- able to withstand win
Cushionlike blanket- traps heat
Interior of cushion may be 20C warmer than
the surrounding air
which insects use as microclimate.

24. Animals

25. •Segmented whiteworms
•Collembolas
•Flies
•Blackflies
•Deerflies
•Mosquitoes-( scarce in alpine)
•Beetles
•Grasshoppers
•Butterflies
•Butterflies keep close to the ground
•Other insects have short wings or no wings at all
•Insectdevelopment is slow
•Butterflies may take two years to mature
•Grasshoppers three years

26. Carnivore
•Wolf- dominates;
preys on muskox, caribou, and lemmings
•Arctic fox- preys on arctic hare, and
weasels which preys on lemmings
•Snowy owls and Hawklike jaegers-
lemmings

27. Alpine Tundra
•Haycutting pika, marmots, mountain woodchucks-
hibernate over winter
• mountain goats, sheep, elk, voles, and pocket gophers,

28. Human Impact
• Hunting
•Global warming
•Oil Drilling
•Over Development
•Pollution