Biome
Do you remember what a biome is? It is region of the world that is characterized by its climate as well as its plants and animals. When you look at a map of Greenland, you can see that almost all of Greenland is covered by ice. As you might expect, very few organisms live out on the glacier, and those are very tiny. For example, there are some algae and very small insects. So glacier food chains are very small also. Look back at that map and see where Greenland is free of ice. Around the edges of the island, especially on the west side, there is land that is not covered by ice. These areas are occupied by a biome called the tundra, and that is where I am camping and studying. Erik the Red's settlements (there were two) were further south but also on the west side of the island.
The ice sheet is white; only the edges of Greenland are not covered by the ice sheet, and these have tundra biome.
Your textbook back at school will tell you that the tundra is a region that has an average temperature below about 40 degrees Fahrenheit and not too much precipitation; that makes it a cold desert. In the Arctic Circle, there are weeks with sunlight all day and also weeks with no sunlight at all. There are not a lot of plants and animals that appreciate these harsh conditions, but there are certainly enough to have interesting food chains. Most of the plants are very small and close to the ground because their growing season is short. There are no trees at all. This is also because the ground is permanently frozen (remember that word, permafrost?!), so roots cannot reach down too far. The tundra is a bumpy and uneven surface and is not so easy to walk on; it's not like your own front lawn!
The tundra is bumpy and full of tussocks; it isn't level.
Pictured below is a forest planted in the 1970s as an experiment to see how a forest would grow. It was planted with a variety of evergreens, aspen, and birch. As you can see, in 40 years few of the plants have grown to resemble trees, and even those are only the height of shrubs.
An experimental forest planted 40 years ago shows that the tundra is not the place for trees!
Our research project concentrates on some of the small plants, especially Vaccinium uliginosum commonly called blueberry. Unlike the blueberries you are familiar with, these berries will only be about 5mm (.25inches) diameter. The flowers right now are even smaller! I will describe the process of counting and pollinating them in another post.
Vaccinium uliginosum is a blueberry; the pencil shows how small it is.
The flower on the bluberry plant is about the size of 1/4 of my pinkie fingernail!
Greenland's large animals are almost all herbivores, plant-eaters. Among them are musk oxen (Ice Age mammals that are similar to bison), caribou, white Arctic hares (which are much bigger than our little cottontail rabbits), as well as Arctic foxes. Of course, there are polar bears in Greenland too, but polar bears need both the ice and the ocean, so they don't live here on the tundra, 120 miles from the ocean. In fact, the last time one was here was 2009, and it was lost and starving.
Alpine Tundra
You can also find tundra in a few other parts of the world besides the Arctic circle. These small areas are called alpine tundra. They are found high in mountains where the conditions are similar to the Arctic. That is, the temperatures are usually cold, so there are no trees, and there are very small flowering plants and mosses. I camped in such a location last summer near the equator in Peru. Despite being near the equator, at nearly the elevation of the Salkantay pass there, I was on the tundra, and the water froze at night.
Flag of the Day
Hannah's flower flag.
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