LESSON – 8 POLAR REGION The regions of the Earth designated as polar are those area located between the North or South Pole and the Arctic or Antarctic Circles, respectively. The northern polar region, called the Arctic, encompasses the Arctic Ocean and a portion of some surrounding land masses.
CLIMATE
Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice (sea ice, glacial ice, or snow) year-round, and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface. Average January temperatures range from about −40 to 0 °C (−40 to 32 °F), and winter temperatures can drop below −50 °C (−58 °F) over large parts of the Arctic. Average July temperatures range from about −10 to 10 °C (14 to 50 °F), with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 °C (86 °F) in summer. The Arctic consists of ocean that is almost surrounded by land. As such, the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water, which can never have a temperature below −2 °C (28 °F). In winter, this relatively warm water, even though covered by the polar ice pack, keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic. In summer, the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise, just as it does in temperate regions with maritime climates. The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth. Antarctica has the lowest naturally occurring temperature ever recorded: −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station.[4] It is also extremely dry (technically a desert), averaging 166 millimeters (6.5 in) of precipitation per year, as weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent.
PLANT LIFE Plants also have adapted to the Arctic tundra by developing the ability to grow under a layer of snow, to carry out photosynthesis in extremely cold temperatures, and for flowering plants, to produce flowers quickly once summer begins. A small leaf structure is another physical adaptation that helps plants survive.
ANIMAL LIFE
Some of the larger animals that exist are foxes, wolves, rabbits, hares, polar bears, and reindeer/caribou. There are various bird species that have been spotted in the Arctic. Eight species of birds reside on the polar tundra year round while 150 breed in the Arctic.
Antarctic animals - The most abundant and best known animals from the southern continent, penguins, whales seals, albatrosses, other seabirds and a range of invertebrates you may have not heard of such as krill which form the basis of the Antarctic food web.
HUMAN LIFE No humans live in Antarctica permanently. However, about 1,000 to 5,000 people live through the year at the science stations in Antarctica.
In total, only about 4 million people live in the Arctic worldwide, and in most countries indigenous people make up a minority of the Arctic population. ... The Inuit in Canada and Greenland, and the Yu'pik, Iñupiat, and Athabascan in Alaska, are just a few of the groups that are native to the Arctic.
EXERCISES
8. Polar Regions A . 1 frigid 2. Antarctica 3. penguins . 4 . ocean 5. Inuits B . 1 Lapps 2. to kill animals 3. Inuits . 4 . Huskies 5. Kayak C . 1 d 2. a 3. e . 4 . b 5. c D . 1 T 2. T 3. F . 4 . F 5. T
E. 1. Global warming is the warming of earth by gases that have been released into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat and so earth warms up. 2. It is not possible to grow crops in a frigid zone because of the severe cold. 3. Lapps, Samoyeds, Yakuts, Chukchis and Nenets are some tribes found in the Polar Regions.
4. Right at the poles, the sun shines for half the year and it is dark for the other half of the year. This makes the year like one day.
5. They live in permanent wooden houses, use automatic rifles to hunt animals and motorboats for fishing. Many of them work in mines and oil fields.