Tundra Animals And Plants Facts

The extremely cold temperatures makes it a difficult environment to survive in during the winter and plants and animals have a hard time coping with any extra stresses and disturbances.

Tundra animals and plants facts. The biodiversity of tundra is low. The tundra biome is believed to be the youngest of all of them in the world. The tundra is the coldest biome on Earth having average annual temperatures ranging from -40F in the winter to 65F in the summer.

Plants grow in clumps and create their own micro climate. Organisms of the northern alpine tundra probably evolved before those of the Arctic tundra appearing first in the Mongolo-Tibetan Plateau. Wolves are the top predators.

The conditions are so harsh that few animals live in the tundra all year. These stem move parallel the soil or go underground. The region is cold dry and windy.

The summers last only about two months and the temperatures are still very cold ranging from 3 to 12 C. When the snow melts the tough grasses mosses and small shrubs have a short quick growing season. Few alpine animals however contributed directly to the evolution of Arctic tundra species because physical barriers prevented the migration of species and because alpine and Arctic animals were specialized to.

Polar bear caribou arctic fox arctic hare snowy owl arctic wolves ermine arctic shrew dall sheep reindeer mosquitoes and black flies. 1700 species of plants and 48 species of land mammals are known to live in the tundra. There have been a total of 48 different species of animals living in the tundra biome.

From the lack of lots of vegetation some herbivores in the Tundra have a hard time finding areas with a abundance of plants to eat during the Winter. It is the tundra plant adaptations that help it grow in the least hospitable areas. Runners are stems of the plant.