Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 07:49
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Tundra Nutrient Seasonality

Hi ,Susan,I am a student from St. Marks Catholic School.I have just read your blog on the Tundra Nutrient Seasonality and my question is.How does the Tundra ecosystem effect the animals eating habits of plants?Thank you

Tue, 06/12/2012 - 12:21

Susan Steiner

On 6/10/2012 7:51 AM, webmaster@polartrec.com wrote:Thanks for the question! Both animals and plants that live in the
Arctic have special adaptations for dealing with the cold, months
without sun, and months with no darkness. Plants are generally very
short, which helps keep them from getting dried out by wind, and they
tend to clump together, which tends to insulate them a bit from very
cold conditions. Animals such as caribou move constantly in order to
graze a large area of land to keep healthy enough to survive and
reproduce. Other animals, such as the little vole on our study site,
will eat as much plant material as they can all summer, so that the
energy will be stored in their bodies for winter hibernation. On the
other hand, an Arctic fox, which eats voles, has deep thick fur, a body
that's compact and doesn't allow for a lot of surface area to be exposed
to the weather, and has very keen hearing in order to find the voles and
other prey under the snow or even under the thick mat of little plants.
I hope this helped to answer your question!