page_title: Canadian Arctic tundra
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Canadian Arctic tundra / Climate and biotope / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: dyke seen from the air in Kivalliq, Nunavut
context_page_description: The Canadian Arctic tundra is a biogeographic designation for Northern Canada's terrain generally lying north of the tree line or boreal forest, that corresponds with the Scandinavian Alpine tundra to the east and the Siberian Arctic tundra to the west inside the circumpolar tundra belt of the Northern Hemisphere.
  Canada's northern territories encompass a total area of 2,600,000 km², 26% of the country's landmass that includes the Arctic coastal tundra, the Arctic Lowlands and the Innuitian Region in the High Arctic. Tundra terrain accounts for approximately 1,420,000 km² in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, in Nunavut, north-eastern Manitoba, northern Ontario, northern Quebec, northern Labrador and the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, of which Baffin Island with 507,451 km² is the largest.
  Canada's tundra is characterized by extreme climatic conditions with year-round frozen grounds, long and cold winters, a very short growing season and low precipitation rates.
context_section_description: Harsh environmental and weather conditions, slow growth and decomposition, poor soils, sparse resources and nutrients, low variety of land forms favour highly adapted and migratory life forms. Diversity of species is only seasonal and habitat sustainability is usually confined to brief periods of appropriate conditions. Hundreds of species of flowering plants are documented. Yet these are organisms with a short life cycle that reproduce by budding and division rather than by interaction with insects. The mid-summer growing season with up to 24 hours of sun lasts for 50 to 60 days. The average precipitation is 4.5 in (110 mm) per season. The tundra classifies as a desert due to low precipitation rates, yet permafrost causes even lower degrees of drainage and evaporation and as a result the ground, lakes and glaciers hold large quantities of fresh water.
  Prolonged periods without sun light, frozen ground and strong winds also prevent substantial tree growth. Lichen, uniquely adapted, and does not rely on roots and soil for growth is one of the most notable, widespread and enduring organisms of the tundra. A symbiotic life form with a photobiont (algae or cyanobacteria) living among the filaments of a fungus where it benefits from moisture, elementary nutrients and is protected from the environment. The photobiont's photosynthetic processes in turn generate organic carbon sugars that feed the fungus.
caption: Dyke in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut
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