Animals are adapted to handle cold winters and to breed and raise young quickly in the very short and cool summers. This enormous biome, extremely uniform in appearance, covers a fifth of the earth's surface. The tundra is the biome farthest north. The soil is often frozen. Permafrost, or permanent ice, usually exists within a meter of the surface.
Water is unavailable during most of the year.
Trees are small and confined to stream and lake beds. The Evergreen Project, Inc.