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Tundra Biome. Sam Horn and Rachel Serre. Where is the Tundra located?. Located at latitudes 55° to 70° North. The tundra is located in the northern hemisphere. Climate. Moderating ocean winds keep the temperatures from being as severe as interior regions.
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Tundra Biome Sam Horn and Rachel Serre
Where is the Tundra located? Located at latitudes 55° to 70° North The tundra is located in the northern hemisphere.
Climate • Moderating ocean winds keep the temperatures from being as severe as interior regions. • The tundra is the world’s coldest and driest biomes. • The annual temperature is 18°F The tilt of the Earth causes the sun’s rays to inefficiently reach the tundra making sub-zero temperatures. • In the winter, the temperatures can drop -70°F • Average summer temperatures range from 37°F to 50°F • The arctic tundra is also a windy place and winds can blow between 30 and 60 miles per hour. • In the tundra, the winter season is very long and severe. • Temperatures can range from • -10°F to 40°F. • A short mild season exists but not a true summer. • The sun’s rays cannot warm tundra area efficiently.
Species of Animals • Although there isn’t a lot biodiversity, only 48 species of land mammals are found in the tundra. • Some of these species consist of hare, rodents, wolves, foxes, bears and deer. • Wolves, Arctic foxes and polar bears are the main predators in the Tundra.
(MustelaErminea) Ermine Ermines live in Canada, Northern USA, and Eurasia. Their diets consists of: Mice, squirrels, carrion (leftover meat) and berries The ermine is a carnivore and eats rabbits, small insects and rodents.
Polar Bears (Ursusmaritimus) Their diet consists of berries and plants, fish, seabirds, and seals Polar bears live in Denmark, Norway, Russia, USA (Alaska) and Canada
Adaptations • When the ground is snowy, Ermines will hunt entirely underground. • They have large teeth to eat animals larger than it. • Ermines’ front feet are smaller than its back feet in order to fit into small places • The polar bear is an omnivore. • It has large furry feet and sharp, short claws that give the bear good traction on ice, • It’s sharp claws lets the bear burrow under the ice sheets to be able to hunt for seals.
Tundra Food Web Producer Moss Berries Insects Consumers Birds Mice Squirrels Fish Rabbits Predators Ermines Seals Martens Owls Polar Bears Apex Predators
Tundra Food Web Classification Empetrum nigrum Acrosiphonia arcta Insects Gracilvnarus Aceramarcae Sterna Paradisea Salmo Trutta Spernophiluo Parryii Lepus Articus Mustela Erminea Callorhiaus Ursinus Delichen Urbica Bubo Scandiacus Ursus Martimus
Community Interactions • Predator Prey • Intraspecific Completion • Interspecific Competition • Symbiosis • Parasitism • Commensalism • Mutualism
Predator Prey Polar bear eating a seal
Competition Intraspecific Interspecific An owl and a marten fighting each other trying to eat an ermine. Two polar bears fighting over the same mate
Parasitic Symbiosis A parasite, such as plastic worm, may feed off of the arctic wolf and harm or infect the animal
Commensalistic Symbiosis The barren ground caribou and the arctic fox have a commensalistic relationship. The fox follows the caribou who removes the snow covering to get at lichens under the soil. The fox then hunts the subnivean mammalsthat have been unearthed by the caribou
Mutualism Symbiosis Lichen is an organism that is usually made up of a fungus and a green alga. The alga is photosynthetic in nature and so, reduces carbon dioxide into sugars that feeds the fungus as well. The fungal counterpart in the meantime, helps provide protection to the alga by retaining water and helping in obtaining minerals from substrate. Thus, both the fungus and the green alga benefit from this relation.
Econiche Ermine Polar Bear Extinction of seals (main food supply) would lead to the extinction of polar bears They hunt by capturing seals coming up through ice sheet holes for air; if the ice melts too early, then they can’t put on enough fat to survive the winter. Mothers who need to feed soon after birth and need lots of calories to make milk can’t make milk, so the babies die, too. Flooding from global warming would decrease amount of land to hunt on Mother’s care for the babies for 1—3 years • Flooding of tundra from global warming would destroy its habitat which is in tunnels near shore (because sea levels would rise) • Eats insects & berries in spring & in winter burrows through snow for small mammals hibernating (if there’s no snow, this strategy wouldn’t work) • Other weasels & owls eat them—if these were destroyed there’d be too many populations, so they’d have too little food for all of them.
Human Interactions • Global Warming- Extreme temperatures in areas of the world (very hot or very cold) caused by the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. • Global warming melts the polar ice caps near the tundra causing water levels to rise and less land for organisms to live on. • Global warming would melt the permafrost in the tundra releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere thus accelerating global warming making the temperature change permanent
Global warming Caused by humans: • Burning fossil fuels • Using gas-burning machines • Factories burning coal • Electric machines