Abiotic+Factors+(Arctic+Tundra)


 * Climate:**

The tundra is cold through all months of the year. Although summer serves as a brief period of milder climates where the sun shines almost 24 hours a day, it’s not adequate enough to consistently warm the biome to warm temperatures. The tundra's short summer lasts only 6 to 10 weeks, and during this period the temperature never surpasses 45 or 50° F. The warmer weather causes a layer of permafrost, ice that never goes away in the ground, to melt, creating bogs and shallow lakes that don't drain. During the long winter months the sun barely rises and it is dark for most of the day. Bitter cold winds blow across the barren snowscape, exposing high plateaus to barren ground. Winter temperatures don't reach above 20° F and average -20° to -30°F (F1). That's a pretty drastic average difference of eighty degrees between summer and winter, which requires behavioral changes from animals in the environment(Ex: hibernation in winter, than awake and foraging during summer). It also means that the organisms in the area must be capable of withstanding such frigid temperature. Below is a graphical representation of the monthly average temperature in Yakutsk, Russia, an arctic tundra. This graph shows the progression of climate in the tundra as the temperatures rise during the summer and then fall again during the winter, all the while retaining its coldness (F2). Note that at no point does the temperature reach twenty degrees celsius, which is the equivalent of sixty-eight degrees fahrenheit. (F3)
 * [[image:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/LJoota6sow49ayf0aGjYByG-aD9BjoL62hzYt_bdK-AbHi2vN_HtPpQsEitr8IbvrNrTiAiWxkw2VD8YhCtHRD1rShBsQfxmC7fKZ0LbrqBW1xnLvsy0Sj66fJ5MQE_tf-RWPpm7 width="351" height="191" align="center" caption="Temperature Graph"]] ||
 * Temperature Graph ||

The tundra is unusually dry. Precipitation totals to 6-10 inches of rain a year, which includes melted snow. The region receives nearly as little precipitation as the world's driest deserts do. Nevertheless, the tundra is commonly wet and soggy, due to the slow evaporation of the precipitation that falls, and to the poor drainage that is caused by permafrost (F1). Below is the monthly precipitation in Yakutsk, Russia, which is located in the portion of the arctic tundra biome that is located in Asia. This graph aids in visually representing the low amount of precipitation in the tundra over the course of a year (F2). As seen in the graph, precipitation is rare to nonexistent in the early winter through spring, and most of the year's precipitation generally falls during the summer period. Over the transition into autumn, precipitation levels drop steadily, leading once again into the dry winter. F3 (F4) This graph compares the precipitation in Barrow, Alaska to the temperature over a twelve-month period. This is consistent with Yakutsk, Russia, on the other side of the globe. Clearly, rainfall increases as the temperature rises during the summer months. When snow and ice melts, it results in an increase in surface water for a longer period of time than in other biomes, because the water can't percolate through the layer of permafrost. That is how lakes and streams appear in a region where there is so little precipitation.
 * [[image:https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/y5IiTn0IaqA7I3uNJhirb4dPMWOqg3ho8DjotSvdL2NWnvRbKhF-ruH_zqlqIM943uzhZhhFLdnkiL7GpsnPvjEQxkCWZER8uviWuv5outNrG9GJ5fBuc_Z_hSUTd-B-9LujbSon width="351" height="225" align="center" caption="Precipitation Graph"]] ||
 * Precipitation Graph ||

(F5) This graph shows how the Earth's positioning affects the sunlight it receives. Sunlight in the Arctic circle is more widely dispersed because of the angle at which it is receives, which is exacerbated by the tilt of Earth's axis. This weaker sunlight is what causes the cold temperatures.

Back To Home Page Foward