Tundra

Tundras are among Earth's coldest, harshest biomes. Tundra ecosystems are treeless regions found in the Arctic and on the tops of mountains, where the climate is cold and windy and rainfall is scant. Tundra lands are snow-covered for much of the year, until summer brings a burst of wildflowers.

Mountain goats, sheep, marmots, and birds live in mountain, or alpine, tundra and feed on the low-lying plants and insects. Hardy flora like cushion plants survive on these mountain plains by growing in rock depressions where it is warmer and they are sheltered from the wind.

The Arctic tundra, where the average temperature is 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 to -6 degrees Celsius), supports a variety of animal species, including Arctic foxes, polar bears, gray wolves, caribou, snow geese and musk-oxen. The summer growing season is just 50 to 60 days, when the sun shines 24 hours a day.

The few plants and animals that live in the harsh conditions of the tundra are essentially clinging to life. They are highly vulnerable to environmental stresses like reduced snow cover and warmer temperatures brought on by global warming.

The Arctic tundra is changing dramatically due to global warming. Already, more southern animals like the red fox have moved onto the tundra. The red fox is now competing with the Arctic fox for food and territory, and the long-term impact on the sensitive Arctic fox is unknown.

It is the Arctic's permafrost that is the foundation for much of the region's unique ecosystem, and it is the permafrost that is deteriorating with the warmer global climate. Permafrost is a layer of frozen soil and dead plants that extends some 1,476 feet (450 meters) under the surface. In much of the Arctic it is frozen year round. In the southern regions of the Arctic, the surface layer above the permafrost melts during the summer and this forms bogs and shallow lakes that invite an explosion of animal life. Insects swarm around the bogs, and millions of migrating birds come to feed on them.

With global warming, the fall freeze comes later and more of the permafrost is melting in the southern Arctic. Shrubs and spruce that previously couldn't take root on the permafrost now dot the landscape, potentially altering the habitat of the native animals.

Another major concern is that the melting of the permafrost is contributing to global warming. Estimates suggest that about 14 percent of the Earth’s carbon is tied up in the permafrost. Until recently, the tundra acted as a carbon sink and captured huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of photosynthesis. This process helped keep the amount of this greenhouse gas from accumulating in the atmosphere.

Today, however, as the permafrost melts and dead plant material decomposes and releases CO2, the tundra has flipped from a carbon sink to a carbon contributor.