Ecosystems

Tundra

Tundra biome

The origin of tundra

The tundra as it looks today seems to have appeared on earth just two million years ago, before the succession of ice ages and following a general and lengthy cooling of the earth. The typical species of animals of plants that can be found in this biome must have come from high mountain areas. These organisms found a favourable habitat in the tundra, because it was like their native one. From mountain areas, the plants and animals that could resist cold and dry climates colonised the new desert and frozen habitat by perfectly adjusting to it. Whenever the Earth underwent some general cooling, the tundra expanded to lower-lying lands, from which it withdrew later, during warmer interglacial eras.