extreme north Asia and North America occupy arctic desert - a lifeless spaces with very sparse vegetation, set among snow and ice.These landscapes are typical for most of the territory of Greenland to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and other islands of the Arctic Basin and the islands located off the coast of Antarctica.
climate of this natural zone of arctic cold.Winters are long and harsh (average temperature - from -10 to -35 ° C) and the summers are short and cold (0 ... + 5 ° C).During the winter polar night reigns, which, depending on the latitude, extends from 98 days to six months.In June, at the same time with the onset of the polar day, arctic desert slowly come to life - spring comes.Despite the fact that the sun shines around the clock, soils thaw just a few centimeters.During the brief period during which hold positive temperatures, snow melts only in small areas with marshy and rocky soils.
summer sky is clear is extremely rare;As a rule, it is covered with clouds, giving a prolonged precipitation (rain, often with snow).During this period, the land is often shrouded in a thick fog formed by the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the ocean.Almost all atmospheric moisture remains on the surface, does not evaporate because of the low position of the sun and low temperatures, and is not seeping into the frozen ground.
for this natural area characterized by crustose mosses, lichens and grasses adapted to life in the north.Areas covered with vegetation - a kind of oasis in the middle of the polar ice and snow, animating arctic desert.Here you can meet representatives of flowering plants: saxifrage, foxtail and some other cereals, buttercup, arctic poppy, cranberries, sedges.No shrubs and lichens, mosses and herbaceous species do not form a continuous cover.Plant height rarely exceeds 10 cm, because the cold Arctic air is heated by the ground and the bottom of the relatively warm.Fleeing from the wind, the plants are pressed against the rocks and settled in depressions on the leeward side of the rocks and other terrain elevations, on the slopes of southern exposure.
terrestrial fauna of this natural area is extremely poor.It is home to foxes, lemmings, and polar bears.In the summer there are "rookeries": come and nesting eider, guillemot, sandpiper, kittiwake, fulmar, guillemot, geese and other species.More rich marine fauna.
zone arctic desert in the south of Russia comes to the latitude of Wrangel Island, and on the north by islands of Franz Josef Land.It covers the Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya (North Island), the New Siberian Islands, Severnaya Zemlya, Wrangel Island, the northern part of the Taimyr Peninsula and the Arctic seas washing these areas of land.Coastal areas of most islands - are flat lowlands and inland areas - mountains up to 1000 m and tablelands.Snow line in these latitudes is low, so a large part of the many islands occupied by glaciers (up to 85% on the Franz Josef Land).Mostly continental glaciers slipping into the sea and break off to form icebergs.On land, ice-free, widespread permafrost.
Permafrost, cold and short summers and sparse vegetation create unfavorable conditions for soil-forming process.Therefore, the soil on the territory of the natural zone of thin, stony, poor.
However, despite the extreme depletion of soil and vegetation, arctic deserts Russia characterized the change in species composition in the latitudinal direction.To the north zone is characterized by grass-moss communities that replace depleted south of shrub-moss.In the extreme south of the same common arctic desert shrub-moss type, but with a strong bush cover.
