The Cycles

The water cycle, which is how the water gets transported through the atmosphere, is a prime example. The water cycle will get hindered in these climates when winter comes and on some places the sun doesn't come out for months and with the short amount of time vegetation has to grow

it never grows big enough for

transpiration.

In this environment many of the three main cycles, water, carbon, and nitrogen have been hindered in some way due to the climate of the arctic tundra

The carbon cycle, the way carbon moves through the ground and atmosphere, is not left out of this. Permafrost in the ground is a carbon bomb just waiting to explode. When it melts the carbon in it releases causing the temperature to rise significantly which is the reason plants have time to grow in this environment.

Finally there's the Nitrogen cycle, just like carbon is the way nitrogen gets through the air and ground, this cycle is classified as closed in tundras because basically all of the nitrogen is trapped deep underground by permafrost very early on in the cold months of winter and that stops it all together.

Trophic Level

The five trophic levels are the first level producer, organisms that make their own food, second level primary consumer, first organism that eats the producer mainly herbivores, eat only plants, or omnivores, eat plants and

meat, the third level is the secondary consumer, the animal that gets the producer from the primary consumer they can be omnivores or carnivores, organisms that eat only meat, tertiary consumer, consumers that eat the secondary and primary consumers, and then the apex predator which is a organism that has no predators.

Energy Pyramid & 10% Rule

An energy pyramid shows the way energy flows through an ecosystem from organism to organism. The 10% rule is represented in many energy pyramids and gets it's name from the fact that it means 10% of the energy gets passed from organism to organism.

Pyramid of Biomass

A pyramid used to represent the biomass in each trophic level of an ecosystem.

Autotroph & Heterotroph

Autotroph are also known as the producers of an ecosystem and are able to make their own food. While heterotroph's, also known as consumers are organisms that can't make their own food.

Food Chain

A chain showing the flow of food and energy through an ecosystem with just one organism in each level of the ecosystem.

The food chain Goes from the sunlight helping the grass make food all the way to the snowy owl dying and the decomposers getting its energy when it dies. This food chain represents one of many apex predators in the Arctic Tundra the Snowy Owl, for more information on this creature go to page 14