How does the tundra look like in summer and winter? Natural tundra zone: description

Where the taiga has already ended, but the Arctic has not yet begun, the zone of the tundra stretches. More than three million squares occupy this territory, has a width of about 500 kilometers. What does the tundra look like ? This is a zone of permafrost, there are almost no plants, very few animals. Many mysterious secrets contain this mysterious territory.

Tundra zone

On the shores of the northern seas stretches the tundra zone. Wherever you look, for thousands of kilometers stretched a cold plain, completely without a forest. The polar night lasts two months. Summer is very short and cold. And even at the onset of the polar day, there are often frosts. Every year, cold sharp winds walk along the tundra. For many days in a row in the winter, the snowstorm is the mistress of the plains.

The top layer of the soil thaws only by 50 centimeters in depth for a cold, unglamorous summer. Below this level lies a layer of permafrost, which never melts. To the depth does not pass neither thawed, nor rain water. The tundra zone is a huge number of lakes and marshes, the soil is everywhere damp, because because of low temperatures the water evaporates extremely slowly. Very severe climate in the tundra, creating almost unbearable conditions for all living things. However, life here is somewhat more diverse than in the Arctic.

Vegetable world

What does the tundra look like? Its surface is for the most part very large. Their size reaches a height of up to 14 meters and up to 15 meters wide. The sides are steep, they consist of peat, the inner part is almost always frozen. Between the mounds in the intervals of up to 2.5 meters are marshes, the so-called ersei Samoyeds. The sides of the hillocks are covered with mosses and lichens, often cloudberries are immediately found. Their body is formed by mosses and tundra shrubs.

Closer to the rivers, to the south, where one can observe the tundra forests, the hummocky zone turns into sphagnum peat bogs. Here grows cloudberry, shag, cranberry, gonobol, birchberry. Sphagnum peat bogs deep into the forest zone. East of the Taman range, the mounds are very rare, only in low, swampy places.

Tundra subzones

Even areas of Siberia are occupied by peaty tundra. Mosses and tundra shrubs stretch as a continuous film over the surface of the earth. Mostly the barrel covers the ground, but cloudberries can also be found. This type of tundra is especially widespread between Pechora and Timan.

In high places where water does not stagnate, but the wind wanders, the fissured tundra is located. Dry, cracked soil is broken down into small areas, on which there is nothing but frozen ground. Cracks can hide grasses, shrubs and saxifrage.

Those who are interested in what the tundra looks like, it will be useful to learn that there is fertile soil here. The grassy shrub tundra is rich in shrubs, there are almost no mosses and lichens.

The most characteristic for this natural zone is the yagel and lichen, due to which the tundra is painted in a light gray color. In addition, standing out against the backdrop of a yagel with spots, small bushes are squeezed to the ground. The southern regions boast of small islands of forest. Dwarf species of willows and birch birches are quite common.

Animal world

The way the tundra looks does not affect the number of animals permanently living in this region. One of the ordinary inhabitants of the tundra is the moonstone buzzard. Birds nest right on the ground or rocks. White-tailed eagle - the native inhabitant of the tundra - lives on the seashore. Gyrfalcon, found in the northernmost regions of the region, is the most common bird of the region. All birds are hunting ptarmigans and small rodents.

In this natural zone live not only birds, but also shaggy, and of different sizes. So, from the animals of the tundra the largest is the reindeer. This is the most adapted to the climate conditions. In Europe, he almost died out, there were representatives only in Norway. Also, deer are rare on the Kola Peninsula. The house deer came to replace them.

Deer, except for man, have also a natural enemy - the wolf. These predators have a much thicker undercoat than their forest counterparts. In addition to these animals, in the tundra there are polar bears, musk oxen, Arctic foxes, Parry ground squirrels, lemmings, harebacks and wolverines.

Climate

The climate of the tundra is very severe. The temperature in a short summer does not rise above 10 degrees, the average temperature in winter is not higher than minus 50. A thick layer of snow falls already by September, only increasing the layers with each month.

Despite the fact that the sun hardly shows above the horizon for the entire long winter night, there is no impervious darkness here. What does the tundra look like on a polar night? Even in moonless periods, it is quite light. After all, there is a dazzling white snow, perfectly reflecting the light of distant stars. In addition, the Northern Lights, which decorate the sky with different colors, give excellent illumination. At some o'clock, thanks to him, it becomes light, as in the daytime.

How the tundra looks like in summer and winter

In general, it is difficult to call summers a summer, because the average temperature does not rise above 10 degrees. In such months the sun does not leave the sky at all, trying to have a little time to warm the frozen earth. But what does the tundra look like in the summer?

In the relatively warm months of the tundra space, water covers, turning vast areas into huge swamps. The natural zone of the tundra is covered with lush color at the very beginning of summer. Given that it is very short, all plants tend to have time to complete the development cycle in the shortest possible time.

In winter, a very thick layer of snow lies on the ground. Since almost all the territory lies behind the Arctic Circle, the natural tundra zone is devoid of sunlight most of the year. Winter lasts a long, much longer time than in other areas of the globe. There are no adjacent seasons on this territory, that is, neither spring, nor autumn.

Wonders of the tundra

The most famous miracle, of course, is the northern lights. On a dark January night, strips of bright colors suddenly appear on the black background of the velvet sky. Green and blue columns, interspersed with pink and red, glide across the sky. The dance of radiance is similar to the flames of a giant fire that reached the sky. People who have seen the northern lights for the first time can never forget this amazing spectacle, which stirs people's minds for thousands of years.

Our ancestors believed that the lights in the sky bring happiness, because they are a manifestation of the celebration of the gods. And if the gods have a holiday, they will certainly give gifts to people. Some thought that the radiance was the wrath of the god of fire, angry at the human race, so they expected only troubles and even misfortunes from the multicolored sky splashes.

No matter how you think, you see the northern lights. If there is once such an opportunity, it is better to be in the tundra in January, when the northern lights flare up very often in the sky.