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These complex interactions between plants, animals and abiotic factors in the tundra are held together by the permafrost layer, located 450 metres (1,480 ft) under the soil. [3] However climate change is causing this crucial layer of frozen soil to melt. As a result, tundra communities are becoming unstable and basic processes are breaking down.
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 wolf (Canis lupus albus), also known as the Turukhan wolf, [3] is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Eurasia's tundra and forest-tundra zones from Finland to the Kamchatka Peninsula. [3] It was first described in 1792 by Robert Kerr , who described it as living around the Yenisei , and of having a highly valued pelt.
The rationale was to provide a fresh food source to sailors who might become shipwrecked. Rabbits have devastated the islands' plant communities, and have caused serious erosion in places where their numbers have exploded - mostly the eastern half of the islands, where population densities have reached 40+ per acre in some places.
The impact of human activity on the tundra ecosystems where pikas live has been recorded dating back to the 1970s. [18] Rather than hibernate during winter, pikas forage for grasses and other forms of plant matter and stash these findings in protected dens in a process called "haying". They eat the dried plants during the winter. [19]
The wildlife of Iceland is the wild plant and animal life found on the island of Iceland, located in the north Atlantic Ocean just south of the Arctic Circle. The flora, fauna, and funga is limited by the geography and climate of the island. The habitats on the island include high mountains, lava fields, tundras, rivers, lakes and a coastal ...
The wildlife of Russia inhabits terrain that extends across 12 time zones and from the tundra region in the far north to the Caucasus Mountains and prairies in the south, including temperate forests which cover 70% of the country. Russia's forests comprise 22% of the forest in the world [1] as well as 33% of all temperate forest. [2]
The snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus), [4] also known as the polar owl, the white owl and the Arctic owl, [5] is a large, white owl of the true owl family. [6] Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the Palearctic, breeding mostly on the tundra. [2]