Main feature tundra - swampy lowlands in a harsh climate, high relative humidity, strong winds and permafrost. Plants in the tundra are pressed against the surface of the soil, forming intertwining shoots in the form of a pillow.
Term etymology
Classification
Tundra is usually divided into three subzones (landscapes of the same subzones can differ significantly depending on longitude):
- The Arctic tundra is predominantly herbaceous, sedge-cotton grass, with cushion-shaped semi-shrubs and mosses in damp depressions. The vegetation cover is not closed, there are no shrubs, clay bare “medallions” with microscopic algae and permafrost heaving mounds are widely developed.
- The middle tundra, or typical tundra, is predominantly moss. Around the lakes - sedge-cotton grass vegetation with a small admixture of herbs and cereals. Creeping polar willows and dwarf birches appear, hidden by mosses and lichens.
- Southern tundra - shrub; The vegetation of the southern tundra differs especially sharply depending on the longitude.
mountain tundra
Mountain tundra form an altitudinal zone in the mountains of the subarctic and temperate zones. In Ukraine, in the Carpathians, they are called polonyns, in the Crimea - yayls. On stony and gravelly soils from high-altitude light forests, they begin with a shrub belt, as in the flat tundra. Above are moss-lichen with cushion-shaped subshrubs and some herbs. The upper belt of mountain tundra is represented by scale lichens, sparse squat cushion-like shrubs and mosses among stone placers.
Antarctic tundra
There is also the Antarctic tundra, which occupies part of the Antarctic Peninsula and islands in high latitudes. southern hemisphere(e.g. South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands).
Climate
The tundra is characterized by a very harsh climate (the climate is subarctic), only those plants and animals that can endure cold and strong winds live here. Large fauna is quite rare in the tundra.
Winter in the tundra is extremely long. Since most of the tundra is located beyond the Arctic Circle, the tundra experiences a polar night in winter. The severity of winter depends on the continentality of the climate.
The tundra, as a rule, is deprived of climatic summer (or it comes for a very short time). The average temperature of the warmest month (July or August) in the tundra is 5-10 °C. With the advent of heat, all vegetation comes to life, as the polar day sets in (or white nights in those areas of the tundra where the polar day does not occur). The entire warm period does not exceed 2-2.5 months.
May and September are the spring and autumn of the tundra. It is in May that the snow cover melts, and already in early October it usually sets again.
In winter, the average temperature is up to -30 ° C
There can be 8-9 winter months in the tundra.
Soils
Precipitation
Animal and plant world
The vegetation of the tundra is primarily lichens and mosses; the angiosperms encountered are low grasses (especially from the Cereal family), sedges, polar poppies, etc., shrubs and shrubs (for example, dryad, some dwarf species of birch and willow, berry shrubs of the princess, blueberry, cloudberry).
Rivers and lakes are rich in fish (nelma, broad whitefish, omul, vendace and others).
The swampiness of the tundra allows the development of a large number of blood-sucking insects that are active in the summer. Because of the cold summer, there are practically no reptiles in the tundra: low temperatures limit the possibility of life for cold-blooded animals.
The ecological crisis of the Russian tundra
Due to human activity (and above all due to oil production, the construction and operation of oil pipelines), many parts of the Russian tundra are in danger of an ecological catastrophe. Due to fuel leaks from oil pipelines, the surrounding area is polluted, often there are burning oil lakes and completely burned out areas, once covered with vegetation.
Despite the fact that during the construction of new oil pipelines, special passages are made so that deer can move freely, animals cannot always find and use them.
Road trains move along the tundra, leaving behind garbage and destroying vegetation. The soil layer of the tundra damaged by caterpillar transport is being restored for more than a dozen years.
All this leads to an increase in soil, water and vegetation pollution, a reduction in the number of deer and other inhabitants of the tundra.
see also
Write a review on the article "Tundra"
Notes
Literature
- Zinzerling Yu. D. Vegetation geography of the North-West of the European part of the USSR. - L., 1932
- Tundra / Alexandrova V. D. // Tardigrades - Ulyanovo. - M. : Soviet Encyclopedia, 1977. - (Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov; 1969-1978, v. 26).
- Gribova S. A. Tundra. - L., 1980
Links
- (unavailable link - story , copy)
|
||||||||||||||
An excerpt characterizing the Tundra
“Well, now you want to free the peasants,” he continued. - It is very good; but not for you (I think you didn't spot anyone or send them to Siberia), and even less so for the peasants. If they are beaten, flogged, sent to Siberia, then I think that this does not make them any worse. In Siberia, he leads the same bestial life, and the scars on his body will heal, and he is as happy as he was before. And this is necessary for those people who perish morally, earn themselves repentance, suppress this repentance and become rude because they have the opportunity to execute right and wrong. That's who I feel sorry for, and for whom I would like to free the peasants. You may not have seen, but I saw how good people brought up in these traditions of unlimited power, over the years, when they become more irritable, they become cruel, rude, they know this, they cannot resist, and everything becomes more and more unhappy. - Prince Andrei said this with such enthusiasm that Pierre involuntarily thought that these thoughts were induced by Andrei by his father. He didn't answer him.- So that's who I feel sorry for - human dignity, peace of mind, purity, and not their backs and foreheads, which, no matter how much you flog, no matter how you shave, they will all remain the same backs and foreheads.
“No, no, and a thousand times no, I will never agree with you,” said Pierre.
In the evening, Prince Andrei and Pierre got into a carriage and drove to the Bald Mountains. Prince Andrei, looking at Pierre, occasionally interrupted the silence with speeches that proved that he was in a good mood.
He told him, pointing to the fields, about his economic improvements.
Pierre was gloomy silent, answering in monosyllables, and seemed immersed in his own thoughts.
Pierre thought that Prince Andrei was unhappy, that he was mistaken, that he did not know the true light, and that Pierre should come to his aid, enlighten and raise him. But as soon as Pierre figured out how and what he would say, he had a premonition that Prince Andrei would drop everything in his teachings with one word, with one argument, and he was afraid to start, afraid to expose his beloved shrine to the possibility of ridicule.
“No, why do you think,” Pierre suddenly began, lowering his head and taking the form of a butting bull, why do you think so? You shouldn't think like that.
– What am I thinking about? Prince Andrew asked with surprise.
- About life, about the purpose of a person. It can't be. That's what I thought, and it saved me, you know what? freemasonry. No, you don't smile. Freemasonry is not a religious, not a ritual sect, as I thought, but Freemasonry is the best, the only expression of the best, eternal aspects of humanity. - And he began to explain to Prince Andrei Freemasonry, as he understood it.
He said that Freemasonry is the teaching of Christianity, freed from state and religious shackles; the doctrine of equality, brotherhood and love.
– Only our holy brotherhood has a real meaning in life; everything else is a dream,” said Pierre. - You understand, my friend, that outside this union everything is full of lies and untruth, and I agree with you that there is nothing left for a smart and kind person, as soon as, like you, to live out his life, trying only not to interfere with others. But assimilate our basic convictions for yourself, join our brotherhood, give yourself to us, let yourself be led, and now you will feel, as I felt, a part of this huge, invisible chain, of which the beginning is hidden in heaven, - said Pierre.
Prince Andrei, silently, looking in front of him, listened to Pierre's speech. Several times, not hearing the noise of the carriage, he asked Pierre for unheard words. From the special brilliance that lit up in the eyes of Prince Andrei, and from his silence, Pierre saw that his words were not in vain, that Prince Andrei would not interrupt him and would not laugh at his words.
They drove up to a flooded river, which they had to cross by ferry. While the carriage and horses were being installed, they went to the ferry.
Prince Andrei, leaning on the railing, silently looked along the flood shining from the setting sun.
- Well, what do you think about it? - asked Pierre, - why are you silent?
- What I think? I listened to you. All this is so, - said Prince Andrei. - But you say: join our brotherhood, and we will show you the purpose of life and the purpose of man, and the laws that govern the world. But who are we people? Why do you know everything? Why am I the only one who doesn't see what you see? You see the kingdom of goodness and truth on earth, but I do not see it.
Pierre interrupted him. Do you believe in a future life? - he asked.
- To the next life? - repeated Prince Andrei, but Pierre did not give him time to answer and took this repetition for a denial, especially since he knew the former atheistic convictions of Prince Andrei.
– You say that you cannot see the realm of goodness and truth on earth. And I did not see him, and you cannot see him if you look at our life as the end of everything. On earth, precisely on this earth (Pierre pointed to the field), there is no truth - everything is a lie and evil; but in the world, in the whole world, there is a kingdom of truth, and we are now the children of the earth, and forever the children of the whole world. Do I not feel in my soul that I am part of this vast, harmonious whole. Do I not feel that I am in this vast, innumerable number of beings in which the Divine manifests - high power, as you wish - that I am one link, one step from the lower beings to the higher. If I see, I clearly see this ladder that leads from the plant to man, then why should I suppose that this ladder is interrupted with me, and does not lead further and further. I feel that not only can I not disappear, just as nothing in the world disappears, but that I will always be and have always been. I feel that besides me, spirits live above me and that there is truth in this world.
“Yes, this is the teaching of Herder,” said Prince Andrei, “but not that, my soul, will convince me, but life and death, that’s what convinces. It is convincing that you see a creature dear to you, who is connected with you, before whom you were guilty and hoped to justify yourself (Prince Andrei trembled in his voice and turned away) and suddenly this creature suffers, suffers and ceases to be ... Why? It cannot be that there is no answer! And I believe he is... That's what convinces, that's what convinced me, - said Prince Andrei.
“Well, yes, yes,” said Pierre, “isn’t that what I say too!”
- Not. I only say that it is not arguments that convince you of the need for a future life, but when you walk in life hand in hand with a person, and suddenly this person disappears into nowhere, and you yourself stop in front of this abyss and look into it. And I looked...
- Well, so what! Do you know what is there and what is someone? There is a future life. Someone is God.
Prince Andrew did not answer. The carriage and horses had long since been brought to the other side and had already been laid down, and the sun had already disappeared to half, and the evening frost covered the puddles near the ferry with stars, and Pierre and Andrei, to the surprise of the lackeys, coachmen and carriers, were still standing on the ferry and talking.
- If there is a God and there is a future life, then there is truth, there is virtue; and the highest happiness of man is to strive to achieve them. We must live, we must love, we must believe, - said Pierre, - that we do not live now only on this piece of land, but we have lived and will live forever there in everything (he pointed to the sky). Prince Andrei stood leaning on the railing of the ferry and, listening to Pierre, without taking his eyes off, looked at the red reflection of the sun over the blue flood. Pierre is silent. It was completely quiet. The ferry had landed long ago, and only the waves of the current with a faint sound hit the bottom of the ferry. It seemed to Prince Andrei that this rinsing of the waves was saying to Pierre's words: "True, believe this."
Prince Andrei sighed, and with a radiant, childish, tender look looked into Pierre's flushed, enthusiastic, but still timid in front of his superior friend.
“Yes, if that were the case!” - he said. “However, let’s go sit down,” Prince Andrei added, and leaving the ferry, he looked at the sky, which Pierre pointed out to him, and for the first time, after Austerlitz, he saw that high, eternal sky, which he saw lying on the Austerlitz field, and something long asleep, something the best that was in him, suddenly awoke joyfully and youthfully in his soul. This feeling disappeared as soon as Prince Andrei entered the habitual conditions of life again, but he knew that this feeling, which he did not know how to develop, lived in him. A meeting with Pierre was for Prince Andrei an epoch from which, although in appearance it was the same, but in the inner world, his new life began.
It was already getting dark when Prince Andrei and Pierre drove up to the main entrance of the Lysogorsky house. While they were driving up, Prince Andrei with a smile drew Pierre's attention to the turmoil that had taken place at the back porch. A bent old woman with a knapsack on her back, and a short man in a black robe and with long hair, seeing the carriage driving in, they rushed to run back through the gate. Two women ran after them, and all four, looking back at the carriage, ran frightened up the back porch.
The natural zone of the tundra is located in the northern hemisphere on the northern coast of Eurasia, North America and some islands of the subpolar geographical zone, occupying about 5% of the land. The climate of the zone is subarctic, characterized by the absence of climatic summer. Summer, which lasts only a few weeks, is cool, with average monthly temperatures not exceeding +10 - + 15 ° C. Precipitation is frequent, but their total amount is small - 200 - 300 mm per year, most of which falls on the summer period. because of low temperatures, the amount of accumulated moisture exceeds evaporation, which leads to the formation of vast wetlands.
Winter is long and cold. During this period, the thermometer can drop to -50 ° C. Cold winds blow throughout the year: in summer from the Arctic Ocean, in summer - from the mainland. characteristic feature tundra is permafrost. The poor animal and plant world is adapted to the harsh conditions of existence. Tundra gley soils of the zone contain a small amount of humus and are supersaturated with moisture.
The Arctic tundra is a zone poor in vegetation, located between the North Pole and the coniferous forests of the taiga. In winter, all the water here freezes, and the area turns into a snow-covered desert. Under the snow there is a layer of frozen soil about 1.5 km thick, which warms up by 40-60 cm in summer. The polar night lasts for months. Strong winds are blowing, the ground is cracking from frost. In the Greenland tundra, wind speeds can reach 100 km/h. Even in summer, the local landscape does not please the eye with diversity. There are rubble and bare loam everywhere. Only in some places spots and stripes of greenery are visible. Therefore, these places are called spotted tundra.
Where the summer is longer, where the earth warms up deeper, and in winter there is more snow, moss-lichen (typical) tundra stretches in a wide strip. Vegetable world is richer and more varied. In summer, rivers and lakes sparkle in the sun, playing with waters, surrounded by bright flowering vegetation. In the middle of summer, the Polar Day begins, which lasts for several months. The typical tundra is dominated by herbaceous plants, represented by sedge, marsh mytnik, cotton grass. Dwarf birch, alder, polar willow, juniper grow in river valleys and on slopes protected from the wind. They are very low and do not rise above 30 - 50 cm. Short stature contributes to the maximum use of the heat of the upper layers of the soil in summer and better protection by snow cover from wind and frost in winter. The thickness of the snow is measured by the height of the bush in the tundra.
Most of the tundra is used as summer pasture for reindeer. Moss reindeer feed on grows very slowly, only 3-5 mm per year, so the same pasture cannot be used for several years in a row. It takes 10-15 years to restore the lichen cover.
Difficult climatic conditions, the constant struggle for survival are not the only Problems modern tundra. The construction of oil pipelines that pollute the soil and water bodies, the use of heavy equipment that destroys the already poor vegetation cover leads to a reduction in pasture areas, the death of animals and puts this region on the brink of an ecological disaster.
Tundra- one of the types of natural zones lying outside the northern limits of forest vegetation, spaces with permafrost soil, not flooded with sea or river waters. The tundra is located north of the taiga zone. By the nature of the surface of the tundra are swampy, peaty, rocky. The southern border of the tundra is taken as the beginning of the Arctic.
The tundra (together with the forest tundra) makes up 15% of the entire territory of Russia, occupying the northern coast of Russia except for the shores of the White Sea. Plants in the tundra are pressed against the surface of the soil, forming intertwining shoots in the form of a pillow. Three main factors hinder the growth of forests in the tundra zones - cold and short summers, strong winds and high air humidity. There are many swamps in the tundra. Snow is blown away from high places, and the soil freezes so much that it does not have time to thaw in summer. Therefore, permafrost is almost ubiquitous in the tundra. On the Kola Peninsula, the forest continues for another one or two hundred kilometers to the north beyond the Arctic Circle. The influence of the non-freezing Barents Sea is strong here, and winters are even warmer than in middle lane Russia. The tundra is left with only a seaside strip with its winds and fogs. Treeless on the peninsula are also the low peaks of the hills, which the indigenous people - the Sami call tunturi, from where the word "tundra" comes from. Beyond the Urals, in the Asian part, in the edge of the icy seas and cold currents, the tundra already stretches in a wide strip. Its zone is even wider in the northeast, where even at the latitude of St. Petersburg and Vologda, summers are very damp, cool and windy.
The tundra is very beautiful twice a year. The first time is in August, when cloudberries ripen and the landscape changes color, first from green to red, and then to yellow. The second time - in September, when the leaves of the dwarf birch and shrubs turn yellow and red. Vegetation, both in the southern and in the "typical" tundra occupying the middle position, is most abundant in places where snow accumulates. In winter, snowdrifts shelter plants from cold and winds, and in summer, in their place, you can see tall forbs among the bushes.
Tundra soils are characterized by low snow cover - 0-50 cm, which is demolished due to strong winds, permafrost in the soil affects its fertility. The soils are tundra-gley and peaty.
There is little precipitation in the tundra (200 - 300 mm per year), and the more continental the climate, the less precipitation. However, evaporation in the tundra is so low that the amount of precipitation constantly exceeds evaporation. As a result, the tundra is swamped.
Climate
The tundra has a very harsh climate (subarctic), only those plants and animals live here that are not afraid of cold and strong winds. In the tundra, large fauna is quite rare.
Winter in the tundra is extremely long. Since most of the tundra is located beyond the Arctic Circle, the tundra experiences a polar night in winter. The severity of winter depends on the continentality of the climate.
The tundra, as a rule, is deprived of climatic summer (or it comes for a very short time). The average temperature of the warmest month (July or August) in the tundra is 10-15°C. With the advent of summer, all vegetation comes to life, as the polar day comes (or white nights in those areas of the tundra where the polar day does not occur).
May and September are the spring and autumn of the tundra. It is in May that the snow cover melts, and already in early October it usually sets again.
The tundra is an endless plain along which you can walk for a long time, but never meet a single tree or hill. In summer, here is the kingdom of swamps with swamps squelching underfoot, in winter - a white field stretching beyond the horizon. And many meters deep into the earth - permafrost.
Most of the natural zone of the Eurasian tundra is located in the north of the Russian Federation. The existence of the tundra has always been known, but several dozen definitions have been used to designate it: from “cold desert” and “frozen treelessness” to “mossy glades” and “walk-wind”. Only after the Siberian word "tundra" flashed into literary works, Nikolai Karamzin (1766-1826) - Russian historian and writer - stated in 1803: “The Siberian word tundra should be in the Russian lexicon; for we have not meant by any other vast, low, treeless plains overgrown with moss, which a poet, geographer, traveler can talk about, describing Siberia and the shores of the Arctic Sea ... "
Most of the tundra lies in the permafrost zone in the Arctic, beyond the Arctic Circle, and is represented mainly by a flat or undulating plain.
The tundra zone stretches along the entire coast within the Russian Federation, it occupies about 15% of the entire territory of Russia - from the border with Finland in the west to the Bering Strait in the east. The tundra is located on a narrow coastal strip in the extreme north of the European part of Russia, but in Siberia it reaches a maximum width of 500 km (in the extreme northeast of Russia, descending south to the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula).
In the north of Sweden, large areas are occupied by the tundra zone of Swedish Lapland. Also, patches of tundra are found in the north of Norway, Finland and Iceland.
The tundra has been formed over many thousands of years in a cold, humid climate and the presence of permafrost in the soil, which lies close to the surface and retains water, which was formed when the topsoil thawed, forming the so-called gley.
From six to nine months of the year, the average temperature in the tundra remains below freezing. During the short summer, the surface of the tundra thaws only a few centimeters.
Since the annual amount of precipitation significantly exceeds evaporation, many small lakes have formed here, and swampy areas occupy large areas.
The vegetation of the tundra varies depending on local conditions. In particular, the climate of the Norwegian tundra is milder than the Siberian one due to the proximity of the warm Atlantic current, and therefore more trees are found here than in northern Russia.
The main natural feature of the tundra is the polar day and polar night.
The tundra is a very vulnerable ecosystem: there are very short food chains, for example, a deer feeds on lichen, which is hunted by a wolf and which is bred by a person. Violation in one link immediately breaks the entire system. To preserve it, in countries where there is a tundra, reserves and national parks have been created.
Nevertheless, as a result of human activity, the tundra ecosystem has already been severely disturbed: traces from the wheels and caterpillars of vehicles remain here for years, and the destroyed moss reindeer stands are restored only after decades.
The natural zone of a typical Eurasian tundra occupies the coast of the Arctic Ocean and some islands.
Botanical geography describes the Eurasian tundra as a zonal type of vegetation in the subarctic latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. These places are characterized by treelessness, the predominance of spore plants (moss) and low-growing perennial grasses, and to the south - small shrubs (not higher than 40 cm): due to permafrost, trees are simply not able to take root. According to the predominant type of plants, the tundra is, for example, moss or lichen. It depends on the location of this section of the tundra. In the north, the Arctic tundra is distinguished, where there is either no vegetation at all, or there is a lot of moss and lichen. Closer to the south - shrub tundra with moss, lichen, low-growing grasses and dwarf birch.
Since the conditions for survival in the tundra are extremely difficult, the local fauna is not rich in species. Large herbivores are represented by reindeer, predators are fast-moving weasels, foxes and wolves, birds are polar owls adapted to hunting lemmings, partridges and loons.
The most famous animal of the tundra after the reindeer is the small rodent lemming. He lives throughout the tundra. A widespread myth about the "mass suicide" of animals that allegedly drown in rivers, following the leader, is associated with the lemming. In fact, a lemming is a solitary creature, and in a hungry year, when there is little food, it goes to look for it, and each one moves on its own, they gather in large groups only on the banks of rivers and lakes. Not everyone drowns, as lemmings can swim quite well. The main trouble for a person from this seemingly harmless animal is that it is a natural carrier of infectious diseases: tularemia, pseudotuberculosis and hemorrhagic fever.
In the Russian tundra zone, in addition to deer, the musk ox also lives, although its number is small - only a few thousand heads, and all of them are descendants of animals brought here in the mid-1970s. for breeding from Canada and the USA.
The population density in the tundra is extremely low, for example, in the Finnish tundra it barely reaches 0.45 people / km 2. There are practically no large settlements here, the population leads a nomadic lifestyle, and mining - mainly oil and gas - is carried out on a rotational basis.
The occupations of the indigenous population of the tundra are the same almost throughout the entire territory: reindeer herding, fishing and fishing for elk, wolves and birds.
Domesticated reindeer are sent out to free range during the summer, and herds can reach many thousands in size. Deer themselves are looking for pasture, mainly moss.
The reindeer ensures the survival of people in the tundra in all respects: the skins are used for sewing clothes and shoes, making the roof and walls of chums and yarangas, saddles and sleds. The reverse side of the skins was previously used to create primitive maps of the area.
Deer meat is one of the main sources of energy for local residents. It is frozen and stored. In summer, the basis of the diet is dried fish and poultry. Plant food almost nowhere is it used (tundra plants are unsuitable for food, and imported ones cannot be preserved). Nevertheless, on the shelves of local residents you can see purchased flour, tea and canned food.
general information
Location: north of Eurasia, along the coast of the Arctic Ocean.Administrative affiliation: Russian Federation, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland.
Largest cities: Murmansk - 299,143 people (2014), Norilsk - 176,559 people. (2014), Vorkuta - 61,638 people. (2014).
Languages: Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Sami (Finland, Norway, Sweden), Russian and the languages of the small peoples of the North (Russia), Icelandic.
Ethnic composition: Saami (Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia), Evenks, Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Dolgans, Chukchi, Koryaks, Selkups, Nganasans, Enets, Evens, Negidapts, terms, Orochi, Nanais, Itelmens, Eskimos, Aleuts, Yukagirs, Kets, Nivkhs (Russia), Icelanders.
Religions: Lutheranism (Finland, Iceland), Church of Norway (Norway), Church of Sweden (Sweden), Animism (Sweden, Russia), Orthodoxy (Russia, Finland).
Monetary units: Russian ruble, Euro (Finland), Swedish krona, Norwegian krone, Icelandic krone.
Large lakes: Taimyr (Russia), Inari (Finland), Turnetresk (Sweden).
Large rivers: Tana (Norway).
Numbers
Area: over 3 million km 2.Width: 30-500 km.
Average depth of permafrost: from 30-80 to 200 cm.
Maximum depth of permafrost: over 100 m.
Climate and weather
Subarctic, humid.January average temperature: up to -30°С.
July average temperature: from +5 to +10°С.
Average annual rainfall: 200-400 mm.
Snow cover duration: 7-9 months
Snow depth: in the west - about 50 cm, in the east - up to 25 cm.
Wind speed: up to 40 m/sec.
Relative humidity: 70%.
Economy
Minerals: oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, coal, non-ferrous metals.Agriculture: animal husbandry (reindeer breeding).
Hunting and fishing.
traditional crafts: bone carving, making clothes from deer and polar fox skins.
Service sector: tourism, transport, trade.
Attractions
■ Natural: Urho-Kekkonen and (partially) Lemmenjoki national parks (Finland), Hardangervidda National Park (Norway), Abisku national parks (Sweden), Big Arctic, Lapland, Wrangel Island and Taimyrsky reserves (Russia).■ historical: Ukonkivi (stone Ukkoі and island Hautuumaasaari (island-cemetery of the ancient Sami on Lake Inari, Finland), the ancient trail of nomadic reindeer herders Nordmannsslep (Norway).
Curious facts
■ In conditions of starvation, the reindeer has adapted to eat not only grass and lichens, but also small mammals and birds.■ Scandinavians and Russians called the Saami "Lapps", from which the name Lapland (Lapponia, Lapponica), or "land of the Lapps" came from. Accordingly, the science that studies the ethnography, history, culture and languages of the Saami is called loparistics or laponistics.
■ The number of lemmings affects the survival of other tundra animals that feed on them. If the number of lemmings decreases, the predatory snowy owl stops laying eggs, as it cannot feed the chicks, and the arctic foxes leave the tundra and move en masse to the south, into the forest tundra.
■ The Saami make shoes from kamus - pieces of skin from the feet of reindeer - or from processed reindeer skin, and the shoes are the same for men and women.
■ A female lemming is capable of producing up to six litters of five to six cubs per year, that is, up to 36 cubs per year.
■ The Saami have their own flag: the four colors of the flag - red, blue, green and yellow - are the colors of the takti (traditional Saami costume), and the circle symbolizes the shape of the Saami tambourine, the sun and the moon.
■ During archaeological excavations on the territory of the Norwegian national park Hardangervidda discovered several hundred Stone Age nomadic settlements associated with reindeer migration.
■ A lemming eats twice its own weight per day, about fifty kilograms per year various plants.
■ The strange-sounding name of the tundra animal - the musk ox - was born as a result of the uncertainty of its classification in the system of the world fauna: it was assigned both to the bovid family (which includes the bull), and to the goat subfamily (which includes small domestic animals). The Russian name "musk ox" is a literal translation of the Latin name ovibos, or "ram-ox".
■ In total, the tundra flora includes about 1000 species of lichen and moss, 1300-1500 species of flowering plants.
■ The main part of the world's reindeer live in the Russian tundra: more than 2 million domestic and about a million wild.
(Finnish tunturi - treeless, bare upland) - these are the spaces of the subarctic latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere with a predominance of moss-lichen, as well as undersized perennial grasses, shrubs and undersized shrubs. The roots of grasses, trunks of shrubs are hidden in moss and lichen turf. main reason treeless tundra - low air combined with high relative winds, strong winds, unfavorable conditions for the germination of seeds of woody plants on the moss-lichen cover.
Plants in the tundra zone are pressed to the surface, forming densely intertwined cushion-shaped shoots. The leading role here is played by such plants as sedge, buttercups, some cereals, wild rosemary, deciduous shrubs - willow, birch, alder. In July, the tundra is covered with a carpet of flowering plants. On the warmed parts of the shores and lakes, you can find polar golden poppies, dandelions, polar forget-me-nots, chickweeds, pink flowers of mytnik.
According to the prevailing vegetation, 3 subzones in the tundra are distinguished:
arctic tundra, which in the north borders on the zone of snow and ice. The average temperature of the warmest month (July) is not higher than +6°C, so the vegetation cover is broken. It consists of lichens, low-growing grasses and shrubs (there is no shrub here). Vegetation covers only 60% of the entire surface. A significant area is occupied by (riding), many lakes. In summer, deer graze on the expanses of the tundra;
Moss-lichen tundra. It is located in the middle part. Areas of moss tundra from various kinds mosses alternate with lichen tundras of sphagnum mosses that do not form a continuous cover. In addition to mosses and lichens, sedge, bluegrass, creeping willow are found here. As pastures for deer, the most valuable areas of the tundra, where moss moss grows;
shrub tundra. It is located further south than the moss-lichen. The shrub tundra in the south passes into. The average air temperature in July is up to +11°C, therefore shrub thickets are widespread in the river valleys. They consist of polar willow, bushy alder. In places thickets of willow rise to the height of a man. The shrub tundra is rich in dense thickets of Siberian dwarf pine. In areas of this tundra subzone, shrubs are an important source of fuel. In the shrub tundra, as in the Arctic, large areas are occupied by lakes, moss and sedge bogs, and river valleys. The soils of the tundra are thin, tundra-gley and peaty, they are infertile. Frozen soils with a thin active layer are widespread here.
The fauna here is represented by reindeer, lemming, arctic fox, ptarmigan, in summer - many migratory birds.
The tundra includes areas lying beyond the northern limits of forest vegetation with permafrost soil that is not flooded by sea or river waters. By the nature of the surface, the tundra can be rocky, clayey, sandy, peaty, hummocky or swampy. The idea of the tundra as a hard-to-reach space is true only for the marshy tundra, where permafrost can disappear by the end of summer. In the tundra of European Russia, the thawed layer reaches, by September, about 35 cm on peat, about 132 cm on clay, and about 159 cm on sand. depth about 52 - 66 cm.
After very frosty and little snow winters and in cold summers, the permafrost, of course, is closer to the surface, while after mild and snowy winters and in warm summers, the permafrost sinks. In addition, the thawed layer is thinner on flat ground than on slopes, where the permafrost may even disappear completely. Peat-hilly tundra dominates on, on and along the coast of the Czech Bay to the Timan Ridge.
The surface of the tundra here consists of large, about 12–14 m high and up to 10–15 m wide, isolated, steep-sided, extremely dense peat mounds, frozen inside. The gaps between the hillocks, about 2 - 5 m wide, are occupied by a very watery, hard-to-reach swamp, "Ersei" Samoyeds. The vegetation on the mounds consists of various lichens and mosses, usually with cloudberries on the slopes. The body of the mound is composed of moss and small tundra shrubs, which can sometimes even prevail.
Peat-hilly tundra goes south or closer to the rivers, where there are already forests, into sphagnum peat bogs with cranberries, cloudberries, gonobol, bagun, birch dwarf. Sphagnum peat bogs protrude very far into the forest area. To the east of the Timansky Ridge, peat mounds and Ersei are already rare and only in small areas in low places where water accumulates more. In the northeast of European Russia, the following types of tundra are developed.
Peaty tundra. The peat layer, consisting of mosses and tundra shrubs, is continuous but thin. The surface is covered mainly with a carpet of reindeer moss, but cloudberries and other small shrubs are sometimes found in abundance. This type, developed on more level ground, is very widespread, especially between the Timan and rivers.
Bald, fissured tundra very common in places that do not present conditions for stagnant water and are available for action, blowing snow and drying up the soil, which is covered with cracks. These cracks break the soil into small (the size of a plate, the size of a wheel, and larger) areas completely devoid of vegetation, so that frozen clay or frozen sand comes out. Such sites are separated from each other by strips of small shrubs, grasses and saxifrages sitting in cracks.
Herbaceous and shrubby tundra develops where the soil is more fertile. Lichens and mosses recede into the background or disappear completely, and shrubs dominate.
hummocky tundra. Tussocks up to 30 cm high consist of cotton grass with mosses, lichens and tundra shrubs. The gaps between the tussocks are occupied by mosses and lichens, and gray lichens also dress the tops of old, dead cottongrass tussocks.
swampy tundra covers large areas in Siberia, where various sedges and grasses predominate in swamps. Swampy spaces occupy, as already noted, the gaps between the hillocks in the peaty-hummocky tundra.
rocky tundra developed on rocky mountain outcrops (for example, on, Kaninsky and Timan Stones,). The stony tundra is covered with lichens and tundra shrubs.
Plants characteristic of the tundra are reindeer moss or lichens, which give the surface of the tundra a light gray color. Other plants, mostly small shrubs clinging to the soil, are usually found in spots against a background of reindeer moss. In the southern parts of the tundra and closer to the rivers, where they are already beginning to appear, birch dwarf birch and some willows, about 0.7 - 8 m tall, are widespread in treeless places.
