Ice Dominion: Inhabited in Arctic Tundra( Student Example)

Land Biomes: Tundra

Blog by Hattie Haitian Peng

Location

• North America – Northern Alaska, Canada, Greenland
• Northern Europe – Scandinavia
• Northern Asia – Siberia

Climate

The tundra biome is characterized by extremely cold temperatures and treeless, frozen landscapes.

climate

The arctic tundra is located in the extreme northern hemisphere around the north pole. This area experiences low amounts of precipitation and extremely cold temperatures for most of the year. The arctic tundra typically receives less than 10 inches of precipitation per year (mostly in the form of snow) with temperatures averaging below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. In summer, the sun remains in the sky during the day and night. Summer temperatures average between 35-55 degrees Fahrenheit.

A generalized food web for the Arctic tundra begins with the various plant species (producers). Herbivores (primary consumers) such as pikas, musk oxen, caribou, lemmings, and arctic hares make up the next rung. Omnivores and carnivores (secondary consumers) such as arctic foxes, brown bears, arctic wolves, and snowy owls top the web. Bacteria and fungi play the important role of breaking down organic matter and returning nutrients to the soil for re-use. 

advantages	disadvantages
Longer days for plants to grow	Tundra soils are extremely poor.
Promotion of some insect life	Coldness
More food for migrating birds, and easy to store foods	Short growing season

pros and cons

History of Human Activity

No, leave! Do not be wroth! You—can’t live here—
Here, among distant fields of ice and rock—
Here one must be a hunter, chamois-like.

Friedrich Nietzsche – Aus hohen Bergen

The Inuit people were the first people to make their home in the Arctic. 5,000 years ago their ancestors crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia to Alaska. Over the course of several centuries, they made their way across northern Canada to Greenland, following the Arctic coast. It is here, based on their ability to adapt to the harsh Arctic environment and living resources of this geographic region, that their culture developed. “Inuit” refers to the people formerly called Eskimos, as described above. The name Inuit, which means ‘the people’ or ‘real people, is the preferred term and comes from a language called Inuktitut.

How to Adapt

1. SHELTER:

traditional igloos

For thousands of years, Inuit people made their homes from natural materials native to their Arctic surroundings. They built snow shelters known as igloos to house entire families through the long winter. Igloos were complete with snow benches and beds, warm furs for blankets, and long entry tunnels to keep out the wind and cold. The inside of an igloo was often quite comfortable, with temperatures at or just above freezing. In the summer months, many families built skin tents framed with whalebones for structure. The tents were easy to set up and take down as the Inuit lived nomadically, following the animals that provided their main food source.

2. CLOTHING:

warm clothes

Traditional Inuit clothing was highly adapted to the Arctic environment. Caribou, polar bear, arctic fox, and musk oxen provided valuable material to make thick parkas, pants, and boots. This kind of clothing kept people warm at incredibly cold temperatures. The boots, known as kamuks, came up to the knee and were light and easy to run in, perfect for the deep Arctic snows and an active lifestyle. Tanning the hides provided durable skins to sew into cooler summer clothing. With the impacts of global warming, Inuit have recorded rain lasting into the early winter season, something their warm clothing is not adapted to. Furthermore, the impacts of global warming on traditional food sources directly affect the availability of fur and leather.

3. FOOD:

what to eat in Greenland

The traditional Inuit diet centered on meat and fat from sea mammals, an excellent source of energy. Berries and a few herbs were included in the diet but made up a small portion of it. The Inuit also had a wealth of knowledge about medicinal plants that helped keep them healthy. Because the main fuel available for cooking, heating, and lighting was seal oil, most of these traditional foods were eaten raw, either frozen or aged. Due to global warming, ice crossings to traditional hunting grounds are frozen for shorter periods each year. The animals that continue to make up a large percentage of the modern-day Inuit diet are encountering more competition for the scarce resources from other species encroaching from the south. Shrinking sea ice is having a dramatic effect on polar bear populations in particular — so much so that they have recently been classified as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As traditional sources of food diminish, more and more Inuit families turn to imported store-bought foods. The most affordable of these foods are highly processed and contribute to high rates of diabetes and other health concerns in the region.

Beliefs: Relationship with Nature

The relationship between Inuits and arctic tundra is harmonious. Inuit develop tools and techniques to hunt seals, whales, walruses, polar bears, and other arctic wildlife, allowing them to benefit from a healthy and nutrient-rich diet (Figure 2). Everything necessary for the traditional Inuit way of life—clothing, tools, shelters, food—is provided by the land they live on and the sea. This characteristic of their way of life leads them to place a high value on respect for the land and for the relationship to their environment and its inhabitants. Therrien (2007) describes this interaction with nature and the concept of Inuit “Nuna”: a shared territory, for every human and animal, which has been used for centuries by both. Animals are then considered not only as a means of subsistence but also as a part of their daily life, as members of their community with whom they can interact and communicate.

respect to nature

This acceptance of the world is one of the main reasons why Inuit have survived and adapted so well to the inhospitable environment (Therrien, 2012), that is, the Canadian Arctic. While many if not all Inuit agree that changes such as warming and melting ice are occurring, they also view these changes as an inevitability to which they must adapt.

Additional resources:

Life in the Tundra — Tundra: Life in the Polar Extremes — Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears (osu.edu)

Benefits of tundra – Benefits Of (benefitof.net)EditIce Dominion: Inhabited in Arctic Tundra( Student Example)Hattie HaitianPeng, Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.Create your website with WordPress.comGet started