Alpine Tundra

Alpine Tundra By Brailey and winters

Major producers of the Alpine Tundra

Tundra meaning treeless plain.

Caribou moss

Reindeer and Caribou feed on the moss, along with humans. Humans have to boil the moss to get the chemicals out. Some people are worried that the animals are dying from eating the moss.

Pasque FLower (little frog)

The Pasque flower grows on southward slopes and commonly found in the North of the US and up to Alaska. They are also a shelter for frogs, reason the are given the name Litter Frog.

Bearberry

The bearberry is an evergreen bush and attracts mostly black bears.

Diamond-leaf willow

The Diamond-Leaf Willow attracts mostly musk ox, caribou and reindeer. People have been using this plant as a pain relief medicine for over 2,000 years.

Arctic Willow

The Arctic Willow is located in northern Alaska and Northern Canada tundra. The Arctic Willow can also be considered a natural pesticide, keeping insects like the arctic woolly bear away.

Major Consumers

Caribou

They live in the Alpine Tundra Biome, they are herbivores meaning they eat mostly plants. Feed on grasses and anything found it the Tundra Biome, eating 12 pounds of food daily. It takes 80 to 150 years for a forest to grow enough lichens for one caribou. Only deer that both female and male have antlers, there are 7 different types of Caribou.

White Wagtail

It lives in rocky parts of the Tundra, rarely going into the open. Occasionally eating fish and berries, and typical bird food. Lays 3-8 eggs at a time.

Black Bear

Commonly found in North American Tundra, very skilled at climbing trees. They are omnivores, they eat berries, fruit, nuts, insects, honey, salmon, and small mammals. Black Bears will occasionally kill young deer calves. A litter size is 1-6 cubs, they reproduce only every second year, but if cubs were to die the other would reproduce the next year.

Musk Oxen

Found in various locations like Canada, Greenland, Russia, and Norway. Musk Oxen are vegetarians (aka herbivorous), they eat willow shoots, grasses, shrubs, and lichens. Females give birth to 1 calf in the spring, once a year.

Wolf

The Alpine Tundra Wolf is a species of grey wolf, they mainly eat deer, whoopie, moose, caribou, and muskoxen, an adult wolf can consume up to 20 pounds in one meal. Seen in rigger lands and Alpine Tundras. Life span of 16 years giving birth every year to 2-6 pups.

Main Decomposers

Tapeworms

Grows in many animals such as moose, caribou, and wolves. Tapeworms eat the food the animal consumes leading to malnutrition. Tapeworms can reproduce sexually or asexually, by breaking off the ends of their tails (pretty much).

Fly Agaric

Found commonly in the northern hemisphere. When first appearing though the earth they appear to have white warts all over, growing older they the caps will become red due to the pellicle. The mainly decompose the earth rather than animals.

Food Web

POPULATION GROWTH OF CARIBOU

LIMITING FACTORS

Abiotic: Poor soil, limited growing season, and cold temperature. Pants can not grow do to the poor soil and condition.

Biotic : Heaths and mosses adapt to a very long and cold winter.

BARRIERS

Climate: Cold weather is the biggest climate barrier in the alpine tundra. The night time temperature is normally below freezing. The second is the short growing season.

Physical: Mountains are a huge physical barrier in the alpine tundra.

RELATIONSHIPS

Predator Prey: Wolves chasing a Caribou.

Scavenger: Wolverine eating off a carcass left behind from the wolves.

SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS

Mutualism: A fungus and algae creates lichen. while the fungus is fed the algae gets shelter.

Parasitism: Tapeworm and caribou while the tapeworm is fed from the caribou's food intake the caribou thinks it is not getting enough food leading to malnutrition.