Download Tundra Powerpoint – Chloe and Kurt

 The icy tundra receives 25.4 centimeters of
precipitation per year
 Locations of the tundra: Northern Alaska, Canada,
Greenland, Scandinavia, Siberia, limited in the
Southern hemisphere (a few isolated Antarctic
islands)
 Latitudes 65 to 80 N
Food Web of Tundra
-“permafrost”
-Little precipitation
-Poor nutrients
-Dead material is source of all nutrients
-High in nitrogen and phosphorous
-Low biotic diversity
-Ecotone: point at which a biome
meets another
-could occur in southern tundra,
where soil is higher quality to
support more life
-Just south of Greenland’s arctic tundra is a
forested region
-Extremely cold climate
-Low biotic diversity
-Simple vegetation structure
-Limitation of drainage
-Short season of growth/reproduction
-Large population oscillations
-6 months of darkness
-caribou- thick fur for insulation
-bear- hibernation
-wooly lousewort- hairs reduce wind chill/trap heat
-Alaskan blackfish- have “anti-freeze” in blood
Very Low Diversity:
-Permafrost
-Low precipitation
-48 known land
animals
High Biomass:
-Cold temp leads to
low decomposition of
plants
-This traps carbondioxide in the area for
high plant productivity
during summer
The arctic fox has a
tremendous tolerance for
cold. Its metabolic rate only
starts to increase at -58°
Fahrenheit (-50° Celsius)
and it only starts to shiver
when temperatures reach 94° Fahrenheit ( -70°
Celsius).
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Generalist species: Arctic Wolf
Specialist species: Polar bear
Indicator species: Cottongrass
Keystone species: lemmings (cascade effect when
population crashes)
Mutualistic: Lichen appears moss-like, but it actually
represents a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and
an alga. The fungus is "fed" sugars by the photosynthetic
alga and the alga receives protection from the fungus.
Commensalistic: Fox follows caribou as it clears the snow
on the ground to expose prey.
Parasitism: Liver tapeworms in moose, caribou, wolves.
Snowy owl – hunts small mammals only at night to avoid
competition from day-time hunters
* The melting of the permafrost as a result of
global warming
* Ozone depletion at the North and South
* Air pollution can cause smog clouds that
contaminate lichen
* Exploration of oil, gas, and minerals and
construction of pipelines/roads
* Oil spills
* Buildings and roads put heat and pressure
on the permafrost
* Invasive species
•Peary caribou – less than 10,000 in arctic, hunted for fur and
antlers
•Polar bears – around 30,000, habitats destroyed by global warming
•Swift fox – less than 700, habitats used for prairie farming
•Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
(COSEWIC). – Canada: organizes the protection of declining
populations in Canadian ecosystems.
•Endangered Species Act (ESA) – US: maintains record of various
endangered species in the US.
•Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) - Canada and Russia:
agreement to preserve land and limit oil drilling in northern lands.
•Arctic Conservation Act of 1978 – US: act by Congress to limit
establishment and drilling in the Arctic.