ARCTIC OCEANS DESERT TROPICAL FOREST

What is the Arctic? The arctic is the largest desert in the world. Only instead of sand it is snow and ice. The arctic is in the north and south parts of the world. It is in Alaska, Canada, Antarctica and more places.

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The Arctic's climate is characterized by cold winters and cool summers. Precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow. The Arctic's annual precipitation is low. High winds often stir up snow, creating the illusion of continuous snowfall. The Arctic is affected by current global warming.global warming The sun shines only from March to September

In the arctic, plants have to be very sturdy. The soil is only a few centimeters deep, but it is spread out far and wide. You won’t see any bare soil there because it is generally covered with snow or plant life. The arctic does not have many plants. It has some lichens, flowers, grass, shrubs and moss. Lichen is a plant that grows on the surface of rocks. (It is part of the moss family, and is a mix of fungi and alge.) There are many types of lichen. In the fall it changes color. This plant is a favorite of musk oxen and caribou. Another plant found in the arctic is the cloud berry. It is a flower with five white pedals and one berry per stalk. The fruit on it is red when not ripe, when it is ripe it is soft and orange. PLANTS

ANIMALS: GRAY WOLVES These wolves, travel in packs. They work together to take down large pray for food such as: moose, caribou, deer and wild horses. Gray wolves live along northern forests of Alaska, Minnesota and North Dakota, and most of Canada.

POLAR BEARS Polar bears are large white bears that live in cold climates. Unfotunatley there are only 22,000-27,000 left. About 15,000 live in Canada. Polar bears mainly eat seals and walrus pups. When it is dry and they are stuck on land they will eat rodents, bird eggs, berries and most anything that is edible.

Puffins In the summer the horned puffin has a black back and neck with white on the sides of the head and breast. In Eskimo language they are called katukh-puk meaning "big white breast." They also have a small, fleshy, dark "horn" over each eye in the summer. The tufted puffin has tufts of feathers that curl back from each side of the head. They have black bodies with a white face. They have orange feet and their bills are red and yellow Two kinds of puffins are the horned puffin and the tufted puffin.

Sporting an elegant sail-like dorsal fin, Arctic grayling are cousins of the trout. During the short summer season, they feast on huge numbers of drifting aquatic insects

Bright green, with red spots and a flaming red belly; the Dolly Varden gets attention. Formerly grouped with Arctic char on Alaska's North Slope, the Dolly Varden is a renowned sport fish on rivers and lagoons of the Arctic Refuge.

It is not a game fish, has an obscure name, can't easily be seen, and has no great claim to fame. Yet the Arctic cisco plays a big role in the arctic. It is a critical link in the marine food chain, provides food for local residents, and brings money to commercial fishermen.

POPULATION: It's Getting Crowded Up Here! There are now approximately 4 million people living permanently in the Arctic, with the vast majority of them having come to the area as populations expanded elsewhere, access and communications were improved, and natural resources were exploited.Arcticnatural resources Discoveries of oil, minerals, and diamonds in the North, and a growing interest in Arctic tourism and ecotourism, are bringing many non-indigenous people to the Arctic to both visit and live.oildiamonds tourismecotourism Indigenous populations now range from about 80% in Greenland, 50% in Canada, 20% in Alaska, 15% in Arctic Norway and as little as 3- 4% in Arctic Russia.populationsGreenlandCanada AlaskaNorwayRussia In contrast, Antarctica has no indigenous populations. The permanent human population of the Arctic - about 4,000,000. The Antarctic – 0. The main indigenous group are the inuits.Antarctica

GLOBAL WARMING…..SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT IT Read this part of and article taken from and read about how global warming is affecting the arctic region. Then write and draw in your notebook a nice sign, inviting to your friends to do something about this situation.

1. Why are global warming specialists watching the Arctic so closely? It's a highly sensitive region, and it's being profoundly affected by the changing climate. Most scientists view what's happening now in the Arctic as a harbinger of things to come.

2. What kinds of changes are taking place in the Arctic now? Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces. The polar ice cap as a whole is shrinking. Images from NASA satellites show that the area of permanent ice cover is contracting at a rate of 9 percent each decade. If this trend continues, summers in the Arctic could become ice-free by the end of the century.

3. How does this dramatic ice melt affect the Arctic? The melting of once-permanent ice is already affecting native people, wildlife and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf splintered, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals are changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt them. And along Arctic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they're in danger of being swamped. The native people of the Arctic view global warming as a threat to their cultural identity and their very survival.