Illulissat, Greenland (Denmark) Photograph by Randy Snodgrass   Nearctic Tundra   66,000 square miles (171,000 square kilometers) -- slightly smaller than Washington Relatively Stable/Intact

· Oasis in the Ice
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Oasis in the Ice

When you picture Greenland, you might think of mile after mile of cold, lifeless icecap. But the part of this island that makes up the Kalaallit Nunaat Low Arctic Tundra ecoregion is free of permanent ice cover and is carpeted in mosses, grasses, and shrubs. Here, caribou, polar bears and other mammals roam the land while birds such as falcons and razorbills soar overhead.

Special Features

The mountainous terrain of the Kalaallit Nunnat Low Arctic Tundra creates a variety of habitats, from ice-capped mountain peaks to coastland. Some of the plant communities found along the gradient from mountain to sea include dwarf shrub heath, dry and wet meadow, moss heath, herb barrens, and scrub forests. Look down in the summer to see tundra flowers blooming all around you.

	Every year, the arctic tern migrates from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again, covering over 25,000 miles (40,000 km). In its lifetime, a tern flies the same distance as a round-trip voyage to the moon.

Wild Side

The variety of habitats in the Kalaallit Nunnat ecoregion gives rise to an equally impressive variety of wildlife. Animals such as caribou and arctic hares live off the vegetation while polar bears and arctic foxes hunt their prey. Many of the birds found in the Low Arctic, such as arctic terns, black guillemots, and little auks, live off the resources of the sea, as do the ringed, bearded, and hooded seals that often can be found swimming along the coast and resting on the shores.

Cause for Concern

Global climate change is raising temperatures and melting ice and permafrost--changing the conditions that species have become adapted to. Sheep farming in the region is destroying habitat, while over-hunting threatens populations of seals, foxes, and polar bears.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.