What makes the arctic an extreme environment?
| facts | My thinking |
| On the tundra, it is usually cold, often windy, and there is little rain.
The soils are frozen most of the year. At the North and South Poles, the sun circles above the horizon for half the year, then takes a day or so to set, followed by several weeks of twilight and maybe three months of full darkness before spring approaches. At the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, there are 24 hours of sunlight and 24 hours of twilight/night at their respective solstices; the rest of the year has the same seasonal variations in sunlight as most of the world, but to a much greater degree. In between, there are extended periods of sunlight and darkness, longer toward the poles, separated by periods of day/night or day/twilight cycles. |
I think that the Arctic makes a extreme environment because people need lots of warm gear just to go outside.
It must be hard to live there if you cannot grow food there.
The light cycle is interesting but when it’s dark it would be hard to hunt and find and gather plants for food.
|