التصنيف: الصف الحادي عشر

The tundra is located at the top of the world, in the high northern latitudes of the world. It is the coldest of the biomes. Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturia, which means treeless plain. It is noted for its cold landscapes, very low temperatures, little rainfall, poor nutrients, and short growing seasons. Dead natural material functions as a nutrient pool. The two major nutrients are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen is created by biological fixation, and phosphorus is created by precipitation.
There are two types of tundra in the world, Arctic and Alpine. The arctic tundra is at the top of the world around the North Pole, while the tops of tall cold mountains are alpine tundra.

Climate:

The most distinctive characteristic of the tundra earth is its permafrost, a permanently frozen layer of ground often 2022 feet thick. Low rooted tundra plants and microorganisms grow in the frozen water. Animals are adapted to handle cold winters and to breed and raise young quickly in the short summers. Average yearly temperatures range from -70 degrees F to 20 degrees F.

Plants: —

All of the plants are modified to sweeping winds and disturbances of the soil. Plants are short and group together to resist the cold temperatures and are protected by the snow during the winter. They can carry out photosynthesis at low temperatures and low light intensities.
The growing seasons are short and most plants. The growing season is approximately 180 days. The nighttime temperature is usually below freezing. Unlike the arctic tundra, the soil in the alpine is well drained. Plants in tundra include tussock grasses, dwarf trees, small-leafed shrubs, and heaths.

Animal: —

The variety of animal life is also limited in the challenging environment. Musk-ox, caribou, and reindeer are the dominant large grazers, feeding on grass, sedge, lichen, and willow. Arctic hare, or snowshoe rabbit, and lemming feed on grass and sedge. Predators include the wolf, artic fox, and snowy owl. Polar bears, and sometimes brown bears are seen. Many birds nest in the tundra shrubbery in summer, migrating to milder climates before the winter season sets in. Invertebrate life is scarce, but insects such as black flies and mosquitoes are abundant. Alpine animal life includes the mountain goat, big-horned sheep, pika, marmot, and the ptarmigan, a grouselike bird. Flies are scarce but butterflies, beetles, and grasshoppers are abundant.
Animals are adapted to handle long, cold winters and to breed and raise young quickly in the summer. Animals such as mammals and birds also have additional insulation from fat. Many animals hibernate during the winter because food is not abundant. Another alternative is to migrate south in the winter, like birds do.

Tundra People: —

* Various groups of people settled in the tundra area about 10000 years ago (after the Ice Ages)
* Hunters lead a simple life
* Hunters became subsistence hunters and fishing people or nomadic herders wandering with their reindeer, searching for food
* People who were settleing in Tundra areas had to adapt to the
Inuit-‘the people ‘
* Inuk ‘a person’
* They call their natural Tundra homeland ‘Nunavut’, and their language ‘Inuktitut’

-: climate and the unique way of life

* Natural vegetation provides Inuit with little food, only a few berries, and it is too cold in the tundra environment to develop crop farming
* Native animals provided them with most of their food, clothing, tools, and even boats and **** ter.
* The settlers made up clever methods of hunting animals before there were guns and rifles-like harpoons, spears, bows and arrows, and traps.
* Most of the Inuit lived around the shore-line, where they could also hunt and fish for marine life such as fish (mostly Arctic Char), seals, walrus, whales and polar bears.
* In winter Inuit search for food along the frozen gulfs, channels and Islands and move inland hunting caribou in summer
* Animal furs and caribou hides could be made into warm winter clothing.
* Until recently Inuit didn’t have **** l implements, used bone and horn to make harpoon spear-heads, knives, and needles for sewing things together.
* Inuit developed oil lamps using animal fat such as whale blubber
* The Inuit had no timber so they learnt how to build turf-huts with bone rafters, tents out of caribou skin, and snow block houses called igloos.
* To be able to hunt fish at sea, Inuit built open boats called umiaks, which were the world’s first kayaks, making them out of whale bone and animal skin.

Health Issues: —
The tundra has a very extreme climate. The intense cold presents many problems if you are not prepared. In any situation where extreme cold is present, hypothermia is a risk you take. Hypothermia is the lowering of the body’s core temperature. There are two types of hypothermia, acute and chronic. Acute hypothermia is the rapid lowering of the body’s core temperature. Chronic hypothermia is the slow lowering of the body’s core temperature. If the temperature drop occurs in less than four hours it is acute, otherwise it is chronic. Acute hypothermia is also called immersion hypothermia and typically occurs when a person is in cold water. It is important to note the difference between the two since treatment will be different. Hypothermia is considered severe when the body’s core temperature drops below 90 degrees F, and mild from normal body temperature to 90 degrees F
Frostbite is another problem in areas of extreme cold. Frostbite is caused by exposure to severe cold. Frostbite occurs more often when the wind is blowing, quickly taking heat from the body. The ears, cheeks, nose, toes, and fingers are frostbitten the most frequently. When the part of the body is exposed to cold, the blood vessels constrict. When this occurs the blood supply to the chilled parts decreases and the tissues don’t get the warmth they need

Conclusion:

All in all, in a short period of time, the flowers are brilliant. The growing season in the tundra is very short due to the frozen permafrost that only begins to thaw in mid-summer. Moreover, some early animals have been found preserved in the thick permafrost. The most common animals found in the tundra are the caribou, reindeer, and the lemming.

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