The Tundra
By Shelby Dunn
The tundra is a vast, treeless biome that only covers a tenth of the Earth's
surface. It is the youngest biome because it was only made 10,000 years ago. You
can find the tundra mainly in the northern hemisphere such as Antarctica, the
northern parts of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and the United States.
Temperatures in these regions are the coldest in the world, the average
annual temperature being -18 degrees Fahrenheit. In the winter, the sun barely
shines if at all and it can get as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit. There is little
precipitation that falls in this region as well. Only 6-10 inches fall per year, which
is mainly snow.
Below the topsoil, there is a layer of permanently frozen soil that makes
plants extremely hard to survive in. The ones that do thrive do so through shallow
root systems. Plants such as caribou moss, arctic moss, labrador tea, diamond-leaf
willow, and arctic willow.
The few animals the live here do so through amazing adaptations. For
example; the musk ox and caribou migrate thousands of miles to graze in the
tundra during spring and summer, when the weather and climate is agreeable.
The ermine and arctic fox shed their fur in the winter so they can withstand the
bitter cold and be camouflaged to their surroundings. The snowy owl makes
nesting possible by scraping the frozen ground on a hill to make a shallow hole,
and then lining it with feathers or moss.
While the tundra my seem like an exotic wasteland , it is actually also the
most sensitive biome in the world. The biggest threat against it is global warming.
Global warming is the result of adding too much carbon into the atmosphere that
is creating hole in our protective ozone layer. Heat from the ultraviolet rays are
melting the ice caps and could cause landscapes to change dramatically. After
that, hundreds of species of plants and animals could be wiped out because of
habitat loss. Another problem is that global warming is also threatening the
permafrost, which contains one-third of the worlds carbon. When it all melts,
carbon dioxide will be released into the air and will only make things worse.
Scientist think that the greenhouse effect will one day eliminate arctic and tundra
regions from the face of the Earth forever. Although that doesn't have to happen.
If everyone helped out by recycling, riding your bike every once and a while, or
even planting trees, than we wouldn't have to worry about losing the tundra and
the world would be a much better place for everybody to live.