Tundra


 * Tundra**[[image:file:///C:/Users/Nancy/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg]]

Alpine tundra :tussock grasses, dwarf trees, small-leafed shrubs, and heaths ( emiliechien) ||
 * Geographic Distribution: || * Arctic ocean border lands of North America;
 * Greenland and Eurasia;
 * Antarctic Peninsulas;
 * some polar islands. ||
 * Climate: || The average winter temperature is -34° C (-30° F), but the average summer temperature is 3-12° C (37-54° F) It has extremely low temeperature, little precipitation, and short growing and reproduction seasons throughout the year. ||
 * Soil Fertility: || A layer of permanently frozen subsoil called //permafrost// exists, consisting mostly of gravel and finer material.It does not have a lot of nutrients in the soil. (The nutrients in the soil are in the form od dead organic matter. Dead organic material functions like a nutrient. The major nutrients are nitrogen and ohosphorus.Nitrogen is created by biological fixation, and phosphorus is created by precipitation.)- emilie chien ||
 * Typical Plants: || It has a very simple vegetation structure. There are about 1,700 kinds of plants in the arctic and subarctic, and these include: * low shrubs, sedges, reindeer mosses, liverworts, and grasses
 * 400 varieties of flowers
 * crustose and foliose lichen
 * Human Impact Issues: || In the recent decades, humans have caused alot of damages to the tundra biomes through mining for minerals, pollution, and more. Roadtracks and bulldozing has caused the vegetation had destroyed the vegetation, which require a long time to fully recover. Oil spillage had caused many species to die affecting the food chain in the trundra. Traces of radioactive and chemical pollutants are found in plants, which are taken up by herbivores then by humans. Construction of pipelines block the traditional pathways of migrating land species, such as the caribou. (Charles Lee) ||

Resources: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/tundra.php http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557297_2/tundra.html