Download Tundra Plants Mountain and Tundra Plants

The Plant Kingdom
Tundra Plants
Mountain and Tundra Plants
(Part 2)
Living on Planet Earth
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Mountain and Tundra Plants
Plants growing in high altitudes
and in Polar Regions are some
of the hardiest species. We’ll
look at how plants survive in
mountain and arctic tundra
biomes.
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Tundra Plants
The tundra describes an area of the
Earth having low-growing vegetation
and no trees. Alpine tundra is common
in the higher mountain altitudes.
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Tundra Plants
Arctic tundra is located in
the north and south Polar
Regions of the Earth. Tundra
biomes are difficult for
plants to live in because
they have little moisture,
extreme weather and poor
soil conditions.
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Tundra Plants
Alpine tundra has a wide
variety of plant species
both of the non-vascular
and vascular varieties.
These areas receive about
50 cm (20 inches) of rain
each year, usually in the
form of snow.
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Tundra Plants
The soils are frozen only for part of the year and so the
water drains adequately enough for vascular plants to
take root and flower.
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Tundra Plants
Tundra plants have a
short growing season
and are exposed to
severe winds and low
temperatures.
Flowering plants use
the long hours of
summer sunlight to
quickly produce
flowers.
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Tundra Plants
Vascular plants commonly have cup-shaped flowers that
direct the sun's rays towards the center of the flower so
that the plants stay warmer than the air around them.
Other flowers are darkly colored making them more able
to absorb solar heat.
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Tundra Plants
Tropical alpine tundra has one advantage. Because
these mountains are near the equator, plants get the
same amount of sunlight throughout the year allowing
them to grow all year round.
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Tundra Plants
The Arctic Circle (North Pole)
supports more plant life than
does the continent of Antarctica.
Most of the Antarctic Circle
(South Pole) is covered by ice
fields but some areas have rocky
soil that supports vegetation.
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Tundra Plants
Arctic tundra plants must adapt to cold, dark conditions
because the sun doesn’t rise during the winter months.
Arctic tundra is considered desert because it has very
little rainfall (less than 25 cm or 10 inches annually).
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Tundra Plants
These plants experience
brief periods of growth
in the summer when
temperatures are warm
enough for the shrubs
and grasses to grow.
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Tundra Plants
In the summer only the top layer of soil thaws so plants
develop shallow roots. Beneath the top soil is permafrost,
a frozen layer of soil or rock that remains below 0 degrees
Celsius throughout the year.
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Tundra Plants
This frozen ground prevents plants with deep roots, like
trees, from growing. Many biologists include algae and
lichens in their list of plants because they photosynthesize
and enrich the soil for true plants.
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Tundra Plants
Plants use the melting water and the long summer days to
grow very quickly. The most common arctic plants are the
non-vascular varieties of mosses and liverworts. They cover
the ground and add warmth so that other plants may grow.
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Tundra Plants
Many shallow pools of melted snow and ice are home to
algae, mosses and flowering aquatic species.
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Tundra Plants
Vascular plants, mostly grasses, shrubs
and herbaceous species make a thick
and colorful carpet. Their small leaves
help the plants retain moisture.
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Tundra Plants
These flowering plants are
protected from the strong wind
by their short stature and fuzzy
coverings on their stems, leaves,
buds and seeds.
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Mountain and Tundra Plants
It’s surprising how many plant and lichen species have
adapted to these hostile tundra biomes with too much cold
and too little rain.
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Mountain and Tundra Plants
Some cling to bare
rock, breaking it down
to add nutrients to the
soil. Others live in too
much water. Most live
in soils that lack
nutrients or have too
much toxic mineral.
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Mountain and Tundra Plants
Yet these plants manage to survive another year or
to produce offspring that provide food for many
migrating animals.
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The Plant Kingdom
Images Courtesy of:
Alaska Geobotany Center
Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
http://www.geobotany.uaf.edu/
http://search.usa.gov/search/
Microsoft Office Clip Art
and
Contributions from abcteach.com staff members,
and others as identified
Living on Planet Earth
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