Hobbies And Interests
Vegetation
Because the growing season in tundra areas average only about 50 to 60 days, the types of plants that can be found growing is rather limited, especially because winter temperatures can plummet to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below zero or more. Besides low temperatures, plants have to deal with low levels of rainfall and a permafrost condition of the soil. Even so, there are more than 1,700 species that grow in the arctic region. The major groups include both cructose and foliose lichens, low shrubs, sedges, reindeer mosses, liverworts, grasses and more than 400 species of flowers. The alpine tundra has similar types of plants, but a longer growing season.
Land Animals
Animal life in the arctic is varied, but keep in mind that many of the animals are migratory, including most species of birds and some types of fish, such as salmon. Warm-blooded animals such as voles, lemmings, polar bears, snowshoe hares, arctic foxes, snowy owls, musk oxen, wolves, wolverines and ptarmigans stay active all winter long. Tundra insects develop many biological mechanisms, so they can go into a state of dormancy to survive the winter.
Trees
The tiaga is a large area of coniferous trees that grows next to the tundra. Sometimes small pockets of the forest will grow within the tundra in places that are protected from the wind. Those pockets are called "krummholz," German for "crooked wood," because the trees are often stunted and deformed. Those areas are more common in alpine tundra regions, but they can also exist in the arctic tundra as well.
Sea Life
In winter, the world beneath the surface of the sea off the coast of the tundra supports abundant sea life. From the larger life forms of the whales, all the way down to the microscopic phytoplankton, the sea is very much alive. Fish of all types live abundantly in polar seas, providing food for seals, whales and other creatures. The seals attract the interest of the largest land mammal of the tundra, the polar bear.