Arctic Biome:
The 2024 Arctic Report Card by the US NOAA confirms this trend, noting that frequent fires and fossil fuel pollution are turning the Arctic tundra into a carbon source.
- The Arctic tundra is a treeless plain with permafrost within a meter of the soil surface. Summers cause only the top layer to thaw, limiting plant growth and root penetration.
- Despite its rocky, nutrient-poor soil, the tundra holds large amounts of carbon in peat (decayed moss) and humus (organic matter), making it a critical carbon sink.
- The Arctic tundra biome spans 5 million km², covering land north of the Arctic Circle, including parts of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Eurasia.
- The climate here is extremely cold, with temperatures from -60°C in winter to 15.5°C in summer. Annual precipitation is low (150–250 mm), mostly in snow and sleet form.
- Vegetation is herbaceous, including grasses, lichens, mosses, and low shrubs like dwarf willows, adapted to cold, wind, and poor soil.
- Animal life includes caribou, polar bears, arctic foxes, musk ox, and migratory birds like loons and snow geese. Insects like mosquitoes flourish in summer due to melting snow.
- Human habitation is limited, mainly to coastal areas, with indigenous communities like the Eskimos living semi-nomadic lives and relying on fishing and hunting.
- Resource extraction has increased in recent decades. Examples include gold mining in Alaska, petroleum in Kenai Peninsula, and iron ore in Labrador, Canada, and Kiruna, Sweden.
- Infrastructure like railways and Arctic ports have enabled the transport of minerals, timber, and furs, especially from Siberia, assisted by modern icebreakers
