Arctic Tundra Animals And Plants

Many animals live on the tundra including caribou.

Arctic tundra animals and plants. This is why plants as well animals in the Arctic tundra biome endure its testing conditions. Many Arctic animals live in the ocean. Some animals stay all year round others migrate to warmer places for the winter.

The Arctic hare eats mainly woody plants but also dine on buds fruits. The tundra is characterized by permafrost a layer of soil and partially decomposed organic matter that is frozen year-round. The prominent plants include varieties of mosses lichens sedges perennial grasses and cushion plants.

Students create an arctic food web to understand the feeding connections and social relationships between tundra plants and animals. Animals in the tundra are also adapted to extreme conditions and they take advantage of the temporary explosion of plant and insect life in the short growing season. Balance of the body is maintained with these large hooves as the caribou.

The Arctic tundra plants are known for the adaptations they have undergone in order to survive hostile climate of this region. The habitat has a long and brutal winter and the barren landscape provides many challenges. The arctic fox is a secondary consumer and a carnivore.

Caribou moss reindeer moss is seen growing abundantly in the alpine tundra. This plant is characterized by flower. For example caribous possess hooves that are large and spreading.

Only a thin layer of soil called the active layer thaws and. Tundra wildlife includes small mammalssuch as Norway lemmings Lemmus lemmus arctic hares Lepis arcticus and arctic ground squirrels Spermophilus parryii and large mammals such as caribou Rangifer tarandus. It is a type of hamster.