What Are Tundras? | National Geographic

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

What are tundras? Tundras are among the Earth's coldest and harshest biomes. These ecosystems are treeless regions with extreme cold and low rainfall.

There are two different types of tundras: alpine and arctic. Alpine tundras occur on mountains where trees cannot grow in the high altitudes. There, the growing season is about 180 days. Mountain goats, sheep, marmots, and birds feed on low-lying plants and insects.

Arctic tundra extends from the edge of the Arctic Ocean down to the coniferous forest of the taiga. Permafrost prevents trees from taking root, but shrubs and other vegetation grow during the short summers, which range from 50 to 60 days. A variety of wildlife, including arctic foxes, polar bears, and caribou, live in the arctic tundra.

Global warming is changing the arctic tundra, and the changing tundra is contributing to global warming. The Arctic's permafrost is deteriorating, which alters not only the landscape but also the plants and animals that can live there.

In addition, permafrost contains about 14% of the Earth's carbon, so as it melts, that carbon is released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

Science, technology, and the environment | High school biology | Khan Academy

Share your career story with Khan Academy for our new series

View All

Verifying solutions to differential equations | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

[Instructor] So let’s write down a differential equation: the derivative of y with respect to x is equal to four y over x. And what we’ll see in this video is the solution to a differential equation isn’t a value or a set of values. It’s a function or a…

Money creation in a fractional reserve system | Financial sector | AP Macroeconomics | Khan Academy

Let’s say for some reason you had lent the government one thousand dollars, and so the government has given you a formally issued piece of paper that says, “Hey, we the government owe you one thousand dollars.” This is issued by the treasury. This could b…

Exposing "Fake YouTube Gurus" and the business of Selling Courses

There are very few industries out there where you have the potential to make tens of millions of dollars with no employees, no overhead, no office, no physical products, and nothing but a computer, an internet connection, and something to teach. There are…

Can Chess, with Hexagons?

Chess, the game of war on 64 squares. But I wondered, can chess be played with hexagons? There have been several attempts, the most successful published in a book in the UK in 1973, which I promptly ordered to investigate. While waiting for one of the re…

INSIDE a Spherical Mirror

Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. But you are actually right there. Well, at least the camera is. Mirrors are amazing. In fact, the word “mirror” comes from Latin “mirari,” meaning “to wonder at, to admire.” It’s also where we get the word miracle. Mirror- -acl…

Support Khan Academy and double your impact

Hi, I’m Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. As you might know, we are a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. The way that we’re able to do that is through the support of folks li…

What Are Tundras? | National Geographic

More Articles