A rctic Tundra

Arctic tundra is low-growing vegetation that lives at high latitudes mostly beyond the cold limit of tree growth. Continuous permafrost underlies the tundra of the High and Low Arctic regions while permafrost is mostly absent or discontinuous in the Sub-Arctic. This chapter illustrates the interrelationships of tundra organisms through figure that represents a typical arctic tundra food web. The chapter explains how details of primary production rates and organic matter accumulation for the entire Arctic are summarized. The species of plants and animals living in the Arctic exhibit an extensive range of adaptations including morphology, growth and allocation, storage and internal recycling, and mode of reproduction. Arctic tundra includes only a small fraction of the world's biotic diversity. Tundra plants have quite high leaf-level rates of photosynthesis but the short growing season, small amount of leaf area, and the strong nutrient limitation of growth result in low annual rates of primary production.