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Animals Of The Tundra

Land Animal

Polar Bear

   There are many different Animals of the tundra, some big some small.

Some animals like the walrus can live on land and in water.

polar bear in the tundra

    The Polar bear lives in the Arctic region of the Tundra and is a very skilled predator.The Polar Bear hunts seals, snow leopards and sometimes Arctic Foxes, its white layer of fur covers a black layer of skin used to attract the sun.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cub_polar_bear_is_nursing_2.OGG

   As you could see the Polar Bears look after their young, nursing them and protecting them.The polar bear  is a meat-eating bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, just short the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding sea, which surrounds Antarctica's land perimeter. It is a large bear, approximately the same size as the  Kodiak bear.
  A boar (adult male bear) weighs around 350–700 kg, while a sow (adult female bear) is about half that weight. Although it is the sister species of the brown bear, it has evolved , with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting seals, which make up most of its diet.
    
      Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time on the sea ice. Their scientific name means "maritime bear", and derives from this fact. Polar bears hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice, often living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present. Because of their dependence on the sea ice, polar bears are classified as marine mammals.                                                                                                      

Types of Tundra

where to find the tundra in physical geography, tundra is type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands", "treeless mountain tract". There are three types of tundra: arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra. In tundra, the vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra regions. The Eco tone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline.

Arctic Tundra

   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.  Permafrost tundra includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada

Arctic Tundra

         The polar tundra is home to several peoples who are mostly nomadic reindeer herders, such as the Nganasan and Nenets in the permafrost area Arctic tundra contains areas of stark landscape and is frozen for much of the year. The soil there is frozen from 25–90 cm (10–35 in) down, and it is impossible for trees to grow. Instead, bare and sometimes rocky land can only support low growing plants such as moss, heath, and lichen. There are two main seasons, winter and summer, in the polar tundra areas. During the winter it is very cold and dark, with the average temperature around −28 °C (−18 °F), sometimes dipping as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). However, extreme cold temperatures on the tundra do not drop as low as those experienced in taiga areas further south (for example, Russia's and Canada'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 12 °C (54 °F) but can often drop to 3 °C (37 °F) or even below freezing. Arctic tundra is sometimes the subject of habitat conservation programs.

Alpine Tundra

Alpine

      Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high altitude.

The high altitude causes an adverse climate, which is too cold and windy to support tree growth. Alpine tundra transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra Eco tone are known as Krummholz. With increasing elevation it ends at the snow line where snow and ice persist through summer. Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide. The flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by dwarf shrubs close to the ground. The cold climate of the alpine tundra is caused by the lack of greenhouse effect at high altitude, and is similar to polar climates.

     Alpine climate is the average weather (climate) for the alpine tundra. The climate becomes colder at high elevations—this characteristic is described by the lapse rate of air: air tends to get colder as it rises, since it expands.  Therefore, moving up 100 metres (330 ft) on a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometers (45 miles or 0.75° of latitude) towards the pole. This relationship is only approximate, however, since local factors such as proximity to oceans can drastically modify the climate.

Typical high-elevation growing seasons range from 45 to 90 days, with average summer temperatures near 10 °C (50 °F). Growing season temperatures frequently fall below freezing, and frost occurs throughout the growing season in many areas. Precipitation occurs mainly as winter snow, but soil water availability is highly variable with season, location, and topography. For example, snowfields commonly accumulate on the lee sides of ridges while ridgelines may remain nearly snow free due to redistribution by wind. Some alpine habitats may be up to 70% snow free in winter. High winds are common in alpine ecosystems, and can cause significant soil erosion and be physically and physiologically detrimental to plants. Also, wind coupled with high solar radiation can promote extremely high rates of evaporation and transpiration.

Antarctic Tundra

antarctic tundra

     West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of the continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is separated from the main land mass of Antarctica by the Ross Sea, partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, and the Weddell Sea, largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America.

West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and this may be shrinking slightly. The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ice-free in summer. These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica. The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing season.

Sea Animal

Walrus

         The Walrus is a large flippered marine mammal, which can also live on land, with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the family Odobenidae and genus Odobenus. This species is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic walrus (Or rosmarus) which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific walrus (or divergens) which lives in the Pacific Ocean, and  laptevi, which lives in the Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean.
         
         Adult walruses are easily recognized by their prominent tusks, whiskers, and bulkiness. Adult males in the Pacific can weigh more than 2,000 kg (4,400 lb.) and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals. Walruses live mostly in shallow waters above the continental shelves, spending significant amounts of their lives on the sea ice looking for benthic bivalve mollusks to eat. Walruses are relatively long-lived, social animals, and they are considered to be a "keystone species" in the Arctic marine regions.The walrus has played a prominent role in the cultures of many indigenous Arctic peoples, who have hunted the walrus for its meat, fat, skin, tusks, and bone. During the 19th century and the early 20th century, walruses were widely hunted and killed for their blubber, walrus ivory, and meat. The population of walruses dropped rapidly all around the Arctic region. Their population has rebounded somewhat since then, though the populations of Atlantic and Laptev walruses remain fragmented and at low levels compared with the time before human interference.
        The most prominent feature of the walrus is its long tusks. These are elongated canines, which are present in both male and female walruses and can reach a length of 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and weigh up to 5.4 kg (12 lb.). Tusks are slightly longer and thicker among males, which use them for fighting, dominance and display; the strongest males with the largest tusks typically dominate social groups.
Tusks are also used to form and maintain holes in the ice and aid the walrus in climbing out of water onto ice. Tusks were once thought to be used to dig out prey from the seabed, but analyses of abrasion patterns on the tusks indicate they are dragged through the sediment while the upper edge of the snout is used for digging. While the dentition of walruses is highly variable, they generally have relatively few teeth other than the tusks. The maximal number of teeth is 38, a typical Walrus however. includes only 18 teeth.

Where to find the Tundra

   You can find the tundra in 

Greenland

    Greenland is the world’s largest island, though four-fifths of the land area lies beneath the second largest ice cap in the world. Ice-free areas are restricted to the coastal fringes, which can be divided into two biogeographic regions: the low and the high arctic tundra. The high arctic region is located above 75° N latitude at Melville Bay on the West Coast and 70° N at Scoresby Sound, on the East Coast. In a few areas, the ice sheet extends all the way to the coast; the ice-free land of the north is concentrated along the northeast coast. This region is less mountainous than the southern portion, with some rolling hills, such as in Peary Land at the extreme northeast. At 80° N latitude, Peary Land is the most northern ice-free landmass in the world. Younger in origin that southern Greenland, the land is mostly composed of Paleozoic age gneiss and sedimentary rock (Berthelsen et al. 1993). Much of Greenland lies above the Arctic Circle, and like many northern regions is subject to midnight sun (day-round sunlight) in summer as well as polar nights (day-round darkness), which leave the northernmost regions in semi-darkness for four months of winter. The center of frequency for the famed aurora borealis lies just west of Qaanaaq on the northwest coast above Melville Bay (Berthelsen et al. 1993). These colored or white flashing lights can be seen when atmospheric molecules are ionized at low temperatures by solar and cosmic radiation.

      The climate of northern Greenland is arctic, and the lower soil layer is permanently frozen, called permafrost. Summer temperatures generally do not reach above 5°C in the high arctic region, and the north has a higher pressure system than the south, resulting in less precipitation. Rainfall decreases inland, and thus, arctic "desert" occurs near the ice cap in many places. Greenland experiences a few unusual meteorological phenomena, such the sudden and sometimes violent katabatic and Föhn winds. Föhn winds are warm, dry air masses that blow from the ice cap to the coast and that are able to raise temperatures by 10-20°C, removing and melting snow (Böcher and Petersen 1997). The coastal high arctic plant belt does not have willow scrub or herb slopes as in the south, but rather is covered in heath, fellfield, and snow patches. Plants must be very specifically adapted to the extreme climate of this region, being able to persist through dark winters, arctic temperatures, and low precipitation that primarily falls as snow. Many species have learned to adapt to the harsh environment, among them striking varities of wildflowers such as sulphur-colored buttercup, alpine foxtail, and nodding lychnis. These examples are so well-adapted that they can not exist at warmer temperatures, and are generally absent from the low arctic tundra (Berthelsen et al. 1993).

The Canadian islands and north and east Canada

   The Baffin coastal tundra is a small Eco region of the far north of North America, on the central north coast of Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. This is permafrost tundra with an average annual temperature below freezing.The Arctic coastal tundra is an Eco region of the far north of North America, an important breeding ground for a great deal of wildlife.This Eco region is located on the north coast of Alaska, and includes the east coast plain of Banks Island, as well as the Anderson River and Horton River plains, and the Tuktoyaktuk coast in the Northwest Territories. This in an area of low, flat, boggy coastal plains. The underlying soil of this damp Arctic coast is thick, solid permafrost, covered in summer with thermokarst "thaw lakes" of melted ice. This coast has an arctic climate warm enough to allow plant growth in late-June, July and August only, and even then frosts may occur. On the whole this is a damper, wetter area than the Low Arctic tundra Eco region that continues along the coast west of here to Quebec.  

North India

  The Eco region stretches from Prince Edward Islands in the west, past the Crozet Islands to the Kerguelen Islands 1500 km to the east, and includes the active volcano Heard Island and the nearby McDonald Islands. These rocky islands support a variety of plant life, such as tussock grasses, that has adapted to the snowy and icy conditions. There are a number of endemic plant species including Poa cookii grass and the Kerguelen cabbage (Pringlea antiscorbutica), historically a source of vitamin C for sailors, is found on all the islands, not only the Kerguelens. There are also a number of endemic lichens and liverworts.