High Arctic In The Canadian Tundra

Soil and Natural Vegetation Essay When traveling to the high arctic in the Canadian Tundra you can compare the sight of vegetation to traveling to the peaks of the highest mountain range in Canada, The Rockies. There are multiple factors you can use to answer why this is natural phenomenon occurs. The soil’s active layer, glaciers and snow-caps, and the soil in each area not having the four components to become “True Soil”.
The cold climatic conditions is one way you could compare the soil and growing capabilities of the top of a mountain, let’s say the Rockies, to the Canadian Tundra would be about the soil conditions and the mineral conditions. In the Tundra the soil has a very thin active layer due to permafrost. The very thin active layer causes the soil to have very low vegetation because most plants can’t plant there roots in thin soil. Also with almost no vegetation the soil has a very low amount of humus causing the have low nutrients in it. In cold weather only coniferous trees can grow and the pine needles that fall of the trees give the ground a very high acidity which most plants cannot grow in. In the mountains it is very cold but
On the peaks of the highest mountains in Canada are glaciers which have snow that never melts. With snow covering the ground 24/7 there is now possible way vegetation can grow. It is just too cold and they can’t grow upwards with hundreds of pounds of snow on it. In the Tundra the case is almost the same. In the southern Tundra there is almost a glacier but most snow melts in late July-August but the only gives a one and a half month growing season which no big vegetation can grow. Only small shrubs and grasses. In the northern Tundra there is basically a permanent glacier except for maybe a couple of weeks of a growing season which in this case barely anything can