People and the climate - The polar climate Flashcards
What are the worlds five climatic zones?
Arid, continental, polar, temperate and tropical.
Where are polar regions found?
Above 66 degrees latitude in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
What are weather patterns in the polar regions?
Cold and little precipitation, that only falls as snow. This is because there is very little moisture in the air due to low evaporation levels below the polar region?
What is the location of the Northern polar region?
The Northern part; the Arctic covers the Arctic ocean, much of which has a surface level of ice.
Areas of the Arctic include, Northern Russia, Canada and Greenland.
What are the weather conditions in the Arctic?
The temperature is often below -40 in winter and around -10 to 10 in the summer.
Precipitation is under 100mm per year.
Where is Antarctica?
The other polar region, Antarctica is an ice covered continent at the South of the planet.
- It’s colder than the Arctic and winter temps can fall to -80.
It’s also very dry in the interior and sees less than 50mm per year of precipitation, but it is higher in the West at coasts.
What are the two types of polar environments?
Ice caps, layers of ice permanently covering an area.
- Tundra, permanently frozen ground called permafrost.
What is the population in the polar reigons?
In the Arctic, about 4 million, and no one permanently lives in Antarctica.
Why is it difficult for humans to occupy the polar areas?
Low temperatures and precipitation.
What farming practices occur here?
Usually subsistence, farming is hard and agricultural productivity is low, so people usually can only farm to feed their families. Sometimes nomadic.
Why is arable farming not possible here?
Few plants can survive here so it is generally livestock farming and the ground is often too frozen for crops to grow, meaning people rely on meats here from hunting and fishing.
Many Arctic people also raise reindeer here for milk e.g. the Nomadic Sami tribe, who travel the Arctic with reindeer for food, milk and clothes.
Why do tribes like the Samis migrate at winter?
It is too cold for most of the Arctic species so they migrate; Arctic people who hunt their food would usually follow them to prevent starvation.
How have people adapted to the cold?
Clothing and building materials that provide insulation - Inuit people build stone houses into hillsides which are covered by turf and snow.
Why is development difficult in these regions?
Low temps and frozen ground make it hard for people to work or build there, making development difficult.
How has infrastructure been developed here?
Buildings and infrastructure have to be built without melting permafrost to prevent flooding e.g. using large concrete slabs to build anything.
