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The flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by plants that grow close to the ground, including perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses, and lichens. [28] The flora is adapted to the harsh conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation, and a short growing season.
The tundra is an extremely harsh, cold, windy, and unique ecosystem found on the extreme north and south latitudes of our Earth. The soil consists mostly of frozen permafrost, which makes it difficult for extended root systems to grow, and water to drain and support a wide variety of plant life.
The Kalaallit Nunaat high arctic tundra ecoregion covers the coastal areas of northern including the upper half of the west coast and the upper one-third of the east coast. [1] Greenland (called Kalaallit Nunaat in the Greenlandic language). Areas inland of this strip of land are either covered in ice or bare rock.
Arctic vegetation is largely controlled by the mean temperature in July, the warmest month. Arctic vegetation occurs in the tundra climate, where trees cannot grow.Tundra climate has two boundaries: the snow line, where permanent year-round snow and ice are on the ground, and the tree line, where the climate becomes warm enough for trees to grow. [7]
Alpine tundra occurs at high enough altitude at any latitude.Portions of montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregions worldwide include alpine tundra. Large regions of alpine tundra occur in the North American Cordillera and parts of the northern Appalachian Mountains in North America, the Alps and Pyrenees of Europe, the Himalaya and Karakoram of Asia, the Andes of South America, the Eastern ...
Glory-of-the-Snow is an alpine plant that preforms its flowers in the previous season so that it can flower as soon as the snow starts to melt in spring. Some plants flower immediately after snow melting or soil thawing. These early flowering plants always form their flowers in the previous season, called preformation.
Overall, the plant life of the Altai show more closeness to Arctic species than do the more southerly mountains of Central Asia (the Tian Shan, the Himalayas, and Tibetan). One study of 300 species in the region found that 39% had Arctic affinities. [2] Within the region, plant life is highly dependent on altitude zonation and the elevation ...
Tundra ecosystems developed in the Northern Hemisphere toward the end of the Pliocene (3.6 ma), prior to this point the Arctic was predominantly covered with forests and shrublands which extended northward to the coastline of the Arctic Ocean. However, during the middle Pleistocene this vegetation pattern shifted to a graminoid tundra steppe. [18]