Friday, December 13, 2013

The Arctic Tundra Ecosystem



The Arctic tundra is a flat, cold desert in which the temperatures can go down to -34 degrees and usually do not go higher than 7 degrees Celsius. The tundra gets about 15 to 25 centimeters of rain every year. Despite the lack of rain, the tundra has some producers, such as lichen, moss, shrubs, and flowers. There are almost no trees because the soil freezes 25-90 centimeters below the surface year-round, preventing them from growing.
Most of the consumers that live in the tundra do not live year-round, but some of them do, like the wolf and the brown bear. The animals that live year-round usually hibernate and come out during the 2 or 3 months when the tundra is not covered in snow. Most of the animals are primary consumers, like the arctic hare and the lemming, but the snowy owl, the Arctic fox, and other animals are secondary consumers. There are not a lot of decomposers in the tundra, but lichen, mushrooms, and other fungi and bacteria grow there.






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