Soils of Arctic deserts. Description and features of the natural zone of Arctic deserts Arctic desert description

Located on the northernmost edge of Asia and North America, including all the islands in the Arctic basin that are included in the polar limit geographical zone. The climate is arctic, with long and harsh winters, summers are short and cold. There are no seasons. During the polar night it is winter, and during the polar day it is summer. Average temperatures are -10 to -35°, dropping to -50°. In summer - from 0° to +5°. There is little precipitation (200-300 mm per year).

Vegetation is sparse, so animal world Arctic deserts are relatively poor: the Arctic wolf, seal, walrus, ringed seal, lemming, musk ox ( musk ox), arctic fox, polar bear, reindeer and etc.; Birds include guillemots, puffins, eiders, pink gulls, polar owls, etc. Cetaceans form a separate group, for which Arctic conditions do not create any problems.

The most numerous inhabitants of the harsh northern region are birds.

The pink gull is a fragile creature, with a weight of 250 grams and a body length of 35 cm, feels quite confident and comfortably spends harsh winters in the tundra, or above the sea surface, which is covered with drifting ice floes. Often joins the meals of larger predators.

The guillemot is a black and white bird that nests on high steep cliffs and spends the winter in the ice without experiencing much discomfort.

The common eider is a northern duck that can easily dive into ice water to depths of up to 20 meters.

The most ferocious and largest among birds is the polar owl. A ruthless predator with beautiful yellow eyes and snow-white plumage hunts other birds, rodents, and sometimes even the cubs of larger animals, such as arctic foxes.

Typical animals of the Arctic deserts:

Cetaceans

The narwhal is interesting for its long horn, sticking out of the mouth, which is an ordinary tooth, only with a length of 3 meters and a weight of 10 kg. Photo: One for all and all for one :)

The bowhead whale is a relative of the narwhal. But he is many times larger than him, and instead of a strange tooth, there is a whalebone in his mouth with a huge tongue, which is convenient for licking stuck plankton.

The polar dolphin or beluga whale is a large animal weighing up to 2 tons, with a length of up to 6 meters, feeding on fish.

The killer whale ranks first among the largest and strongest sea ​​predators Arctic waters, where she hunts beluga whales, walruses, seals and ringed seals.

Animals

Seals are animals that make up a special Arctic cohort that has lived in this region for thousands of years.

This type includes harp seal with a very beautiful patterned skin.

In our line of work, we often have to deal with the fact that the “Internet generation,” having reached the age of 18, cannot imagine all the diversity of the nature of our planet. For them, trees grow in the taiga, and grass grows in the tundra, they cannot imagine African savannah and do not know why hard-leaved forests are called hard-leaved.

Let's start our excursion into the diversity of the world from the northernmost natural area- Arctic desert zones.

1. Arctic deserts shown on the map gray.

Arctic desert is the northernmost of the natural zones, characterized by an arctic climate, all year round arctic predominates air masses. In the zone of Arctic deserts lie the islands of the Northern Arctic Ocean(Greenland, the northern part of the Canadian archipelago, the Spitsbergen archipelago, the Northern Island of Novaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands, and a narrow strip along the coast of the Arctic Ocean within the Yamal, Gydan, Taimyr peninsulas, and further east to the Chukotka Peninsula). These spaces are covered with glaciers, snow, rubble and rock fragments.

2. Arctic desert in winter

3. Arctic desert in summer

The climate is extremely harsh. Ice and snow cover lasts almost the entire year. In winter there is a long polar night (at 75°N its duration is 98 days, at 80°N - 127 days, and in the polar region - six months). Average January temperatures are about -30 (for comparison, in Tomsk the average January temperature is -17), frosts are frequent below - 40. Northeast winds blow almost constantly at a speed of more than 10 m/s, and snowstorms are frequent. In February-March, the sun appears over the horizon, and in June, along with the onset of the polar day, spring comes. The snow cover on the well-warmed southern slopes melts by mid-June. Despite round-the-clock lighting, temperatures rarely rise above +5, and the soil thaws by several centimeters. average temperature July, the warmest month of the year 0 - +3. In summer the sky is rarely clear, it is usually overcast, it's raining(often with snow), due to the evaporation of water from the surface of the ocean, thick fogs are formed. Precipitation falls mainly in the form of snow. Maximum precipitation occurs in summer months. There is not much precipitation - about 250 mm/year (for comparison, in Tomsk it is about 550 mm/year). Almost all the moisture remains on the surface, without seeping into the frozen soil and evaporating slightly due to low temperatures and the low position of the sun in the sky.

4. Typical vegetation of arctic deserts - mosses and lichens.

The Arctic desert is practically devoid of vegetation: there are no shrubs, lichens and mosses do not form a continuous cover. The soils are thin, arctic desert, with an island distribution, localized under vegetation, which consists mainly of sedges, some grasses, lichens and mosses. Plants rarely reach a height of 10 cm, usually pressed against stones (cold air is heated from the surface of the earth, so plants tend to press as tightly as possible to the relatively warm earth), and grow mainly in depressions, on southern slopes, on the leeward side of large stones and rocks. Damaged vegetation is restored extremely slowly.

5. Sedge

6. Cuckoo flax moss (right)

6.1. Lichen moss (light), lingonberry leaves (bottom left). Lingonberry leaves are covered with a waxy coating that protects them from excess solar radiation- the polar day can last for many days, weeks and even months.

The fauna is predominantly marine: walrus, seal, in summer there are bird colonies - in summer goose, eider, sandpiper, guillemot, and guillemot fly and nest. The terrestrial fauna is poor: arctic fox, polar bear, lemming.

7. Lemming - a mouse with a very short tail and ears hidden in fur. The shape of its body is spherical, the most favorable for retaining heat - this is the only way to avoid frostbite in the Arctic climate.

8.

9. Lemmings live under the snow for most of the year.

10.

11. And this is an arctic fox - a lemming hunter

12. Arctic fox on the hunt

13. Do you still want to wear a coat with a collar made of arctic fox fur?

14. The white (polar) bear prefers to live on the coasts. Its main food lives in the waters of the Arctic Ocean.

15. Seal with her baby

16. Walrus

17. Beluga dolphin - inhabitant of the waters of the Arctic Ocean

The color of the beluga whale is uniform, changing with age: newborns are dark blue, after a year they become gray and bluish-gray; individuals older than 3-5 years are pure white (hence the name dolphin).

The largest males reach 6 m in length and 2 tons in weight; females are smaller. The beluga has a small, “browed” head, without a beak. The vertebrae in the neck are not fused together, so the beluga whale, unlike most whales, is able to turn its head. Pectoral fins small, oval shaped. The dorsal fin is missing; from here Latin name genus Delphinapterus - "wingless dolphin". By the way, it is interesting that the stable expression “roar like a beluga” was formed in the Russian language. It is associated with the loud sounds that the beluga whale makes. In the 19th century, the names “beluga” and “beluga” were used equally. Currently, "beluga" refers primarily to the name of the beluga fish, and wingless dolphins called beluga whales.

18.

19.

20. Gaga. The down of this particular bird is considered the best thermal insulation material for winter clothes- he "breathes". In such clothes it is not hot during thaws and not cold during frosts. For many decades, polar explorers' clothing was made using eider down. Down is collected from empty eider nests, each nest containing about 17 grams of down.

21.

22. Kulik

23. Chistik

24. Bird market. Guillemots.

25. Guillemot in flight

26. Bird market.

To be continued.

general characteristics arctic desert

Note 1

There are special territories on our planet - these are the northernmost outskirts of two continents, North America and Eurasia, as well as the island part of the Arctic, enclosed by the boundaries of the polar belt. Ice and snow cover vast areas here, and day and night last half the year - this is an area of ​​arctic deserts.

The Arctic deserts of Russia are among the most unexplored natural areas. Their lower limit is the 71st parallel or Wrangel Island. Upper limit– 81 parallel or Franz Josef Land.

Arctic deserts also include part of the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, a number of islands of Novaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands.

Among the territories of other countries, this will be the island of Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and the island of Spitsbergen, which belongs to the Netherlands.

The severity of nature is explained by the high geographical latitude, and a feature of the zone’s landscapes is snow and ice cover throughout the year.

The relief of the Arctic islands is quite complex - the coastal areas, with flat low-lying plains located on them, have a pronounced zonal landscape. In the interior of the islands there are high mountains and table plateaus. For example, in Franz Josef Land the most high point has a height of 670 m, and on Severnaya Zemlya - about 1000 m.

The New Siberian Islands are dominated by flat landforms.

Up to 85% of Arctic deserts are occupied by glaciers. The islands of the Russian Arctic have a total glaciated area of ​​up to 56 thousand square meters. km. Continental ice has the ability to slide onto the coast and break off, forming giant icebergs. The thickness of the permafrost exceeds 500 m. There are fossil ices of glacier and vein origin here.

Islands and archipelagos washed by the seas of the Arctic Ocean cover special ice– perennial arctic pack and coastal fast ice.

Low annual temperatures lead to intense frost weathering, which in turn slows down intense chemical and natural weathering. This circumstance leads to the fact that the soils of the Arctic desert are represented by large rock fragments.

The close location to the surface of permafrost and frequent changes in air temperature lead to the fact that soil supersaturated with water flows down the frozen surface of the ice-cemented base (solifluction) and soil heaving.

Such soils, prone to the formation of ravines and erosion, are called polygonal. When permafrost thaws, lakes, dips, and depressions are formed, characteristic of thermokarst landscapes. Most often they are found on the New Siberian Islands.

Erosion erosion and thermokarst contribute to the appearance of conical earthen mounds - bajzharakhs, the height of which can reach 2-12 m. Such bajzharakh small mounds are found on the coast of Taimyr and the New Siberian Islands.

Within this zone, there are rocky outcrops from the ground - these are dikes or cracks filled with magmatic melt. Their length varies from several tens of meters to hundreds of kilometers.

The presence of nodules is another feature of the Arctic desert. Concretions are round-shaped mineral formations in sedimentary rocks. The growth of the nodule occurs according to the principle of pearl formation, i.e. around some kind of “core”.

Characteristic of the Arctic deserts is the northern lights, shimmering in different colors.

There is no indigenous population in the Arctic and very few representatives of flora and fauna.

Arctic desert climate

The climate of the Arctic deserts is distinguished by its severity; it is a zone of eternal snow and ice.

The climate of the continental part of the Arctic desert differs from the climate of the island part and the climate of the ocean. The reason is heat transfer water masses ocean.

When water freezes, it releases thermal energy, so the temperature in winter on the extreme coast and on the islands is about 30 degrees. The continental part of the zone has a temperature of -32…-36 degrees. IN winter period it can reach -60 degrees. Arctic cold winds are not uncommon here.

Summer is short and cold, with temperatures no higher than 0…+5 degrees. This temperature is typical only for low-lying areas. At low temperatures, the air contains a small amount of water vapor, so there is little precipitation - up to 300 mm.

But, it must be said that their number increases to 500-600 mm on the northern island of Novaya Zemlya, in the Byrranga mountains and on the Chukotka Plateau. Precipitation falls in the form of snow, and the snow cover has a small thickness, generally no more than 0.5 m.

Fallen snow can remain unchanged for several years. When cold summer period Snow melting does not occur.

In addition to snow, rain falls in the summer, and since moisture evaporates over the warmer ocean, thick fogs form. On Wrangel Island, which is the southern island of the Arctic desert, winter comes immediately after the short Arctic summer; there is no autumn here.

The formation of the Arctic climate is associated not only with high latitudes and low temperatures, but also with thermal reflection during the daytime. This phenomenon is called albedo. Reflection from the surface of ice and snow occurs all year round.

At summer temperature above zero, the effect of thermal reflection leads to the evaporation of moisture from the surface of glaciers, and this, in turn, leads to the fact that the sky is constantly overcast with lead clouds.

Permafrost plays an important role on the climate of Arctic deserts.

Note 2

Thus, Arctic deserts are patches of rocky land that are freed from snow for a very short period. This is a territory of severe and long winter with a long polar night in winter, and an equally long cold polar day.

Flora and fauna of Arctic deserts

Harsh climate with low temperatures cannot create conditions for flora zone, so he is not rich.

There are no more than 350 species of higher plants. There are no bushes here, just scattered moss and lichens. There are some types of flowers - polar poppy, foxtail, buttercup, saxifrage, etc.

Representatives of herbaceous vegetation include sedges and grasses. Vegetation is forced to simply “bite into” everything just to catch on to something.

In the southern part of the zone you can find shrubs of polar willow. The productive production of phytomass, with a predominance of the above-ground part, is very low and amounts to less than 5 t/ha.

The peculiarity of the Arctic flora influences the scarcity of terrestrial fauna, which is not very diverse.

The animals have adapted to the harsh conditions of their habitat. Arctic fox, polar bear, and lemming live here.

The birds that fly here from year to year - waders, geese, eiders, guillemots, gulls, etc. - are not afraid of the harsh climate.

Mammals have “settled” in the coastal seas – beluga dolphin, seal, ringed seal, sea ​​seal, walrus In cold seas there is an abundance of phytoplankton, and this is food for fish such as nelma, cod, cod, and vendace.

The polar bear, the main symbol of the Arctic, leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

The main task of animals, which they cope well with, is to adapt to the harsh climate and maintain thermal conditions. For this purpose, for example, arctic foxes and polar bears have warm and thick fur, birds have loose plumage, and seals have a solid layer of fat.

Their characteristic color, which they can change depending on the season, also helps them adapt. But polar bears do not have such a feature, and remain white all year round.

), the predominant landscape of the northernmost (Arctic) natural land zone. Characteristic basically for coastal areas. Snow and ice cover these areas all year round. The areas of glaciers are very large - up to several tens of thousands. square kilometers. Sometimes they cover more than 80% of the Northern Islands. Arctic Ocean (for example, on Franz Josef Land). In some places they descend to the ocean, and huge fragments break off from them - icebergs. The climate is harsh and cold. Long harsh winter gives way to short (sometimes less than 2 weeks) cold summers. Wed. the temperature of the coldest month is from –12 °C on Spitsbergen to –38 °C on Northern Greenland; the temperature of the warmest month is 5 °C. Precipitation will be approx. 300 mm per year, mainly in the form of snow, which strong winds blown into depressions in the relief, exposing lifeless rocks. There is virtually no life in icy deserts. Occasionally in summer, multi-colored colonies of microscopic algae develop on melting snow.

Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. A. P. Gorkina. 2006 .

See what “ice desert” is in other dictionaries:

Noun, g., used. often Morphology: (no) what? deserts, why? desert, (see) what? desert, what? desert, about what? about the desert; pl. What? desert, (no) what? deserts, why? deserts, (I see) what? deserts, what? deserts, about what? about deserts 1. Deserts... Dictionary Dmitrieva

desert- I pu/destiny and; and.; see deserts II deserts/nya and; pl. genus. you/n; and. see also desert 1) a) A vast arid region with little precipitation, sharp fluctuations in air and soil, and sparse vegetation... Dictionary of many expressions

DESERT, and, female. 1. A large space not inhabited by people, devoid of vegetation or with sparse vegetation. Bezvodnaya village. Ice, snow village (translated: about large expanses of ice and snow). 2. Deserted or sparsely populated area... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

AND; pl. genus. tyn; and. 1. A vast arid region with little rainfall, rapid fluctuations in air and soil, and sparse vegetation. Boundless, sultry, hot, scorched p. Solonchakovaya p. P. Sahara. P. Karakum. Deserts... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (polar desert, ice desert), a type of desert (see DESERT) with extremely sparse vegetation among the snows and glaciers of the Arctic and Antarctic belts Earth. Distributed over most of Greenland (see GREENLAND) ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Same as ice desert. Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. A. P. Gorkina. 2006 ... Geographical encyclopedia

Indicated in gray is the Arctic desert (“Arktos” translated from Greek as bear), a natural area, part of the Arctic geographical belt, the basin of the Arctic Ocean. This is... Wikipedia

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Snow cover, which lies all year round or thaws only for a short time, are the main conditions that determine life in the polar regions.

Polar deserts

Arctic and Antarctic desert zones are also common in Antarctica. They formed under conditions of a long polar night and extremely low temperatures. Only 10-12 days a year the temperature rises above O C, and the top layer of soil has time to thaw for a short time.

Most of the territory is occupied by glaciers. Mosses and lichens grow in ice-free areas. There are only two species of flowering plants, and in the Arctic there are several more. Among the Arctic species, polar poppy, snow buttercup, and saxifrage are common. In primitive arctic soils There is almost no humus horizon.

The animal world is poor. Only on rocky coasts In summer, life is in full swing in noisy bird colonies, where guillemots and auks, gulls and guillemots nest. On the coasts there are large animals (walruses, seals) that feed on fish and crustaceans. In the Northern Hemisphere in the Arctic there are large mammals- White bears. Their main food is fish and seals. In the Southern Hemisphere, in the harsh Antarctic, penguins feel best when they nest on the coasts of Antarctic oases, where the air temperature is higher than in the surrounding area.

Tundra

Tundras are common and North America. In Russia they occupy the second largest area after the taiga. In the Southern Hemisphere, tundra is almost absent.

A typical tundra is a treeless space with low and not always continuous vegetation cover. The main vegetation of the tundra is mosses and lichens. Dwarf birch, polar willow, and partridge grass also grow here. They, as if clinging to the ground, form a kind of “pillows”. Many shrubs - lingonberries, cloudberries, cranberries - are evergreen. Short summer the tundra is blooming. Tundra soils are often swampy and extremely poor in humus, but rich in semi-decomposed plant remains - peat.

The fauna of the tundra cannot be called diverse. Polar geese, swans, and waders nest along the shores of tundra lakes. Numerous inhabitants of the tundra - lemmings - are the main food of arctic foxes and snowy owls.

The largest animal of the tundra is the reindeer. It feeds on moss lichen. Many animals and almost all birds move to. A narrow strip extends along the border of the tundra. It consists of alternating areas of tundra and forest.