Oh Canada!
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Southern Arctic - Rankin Inlet, Nunavut
Landforms
The land of the Southern Arctic ecozone is located in the Canadian Shield. It can be characterized by rocky and sometimes rounded hills, which used to be a mountain range, but eroded and were smoothed and flattened into a hilly landscape. This land has also been formed by the movement of glaciers and the masses of rock they carried with them [22].
As glaciers expanded and moved south, they carried large rocks and pieces of Earth with them, scraping exposed granite bedrock and leaving behind rocks and soil. Eventually, the ground was flattened because of this. Rocks that travelled with glaciers, and were deposited far, sometimes thousands of kilometres from their starting points, are called “glacial erratics”. Glaciers have also left behind valuable minerals, such as lead, gold, nickel, copper, and zinc, which makes mining the primary industry in the Canadian Shield.
Climate
The climate in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut- a small community in the Southern Arctic- thouroughly represents the climate of the ecozone it is in.
This is a continental climate. Rankin Inlet has short, cool summers, and long, dark, and even colder winters (normally, in a continental climate, summers would be hot, but Rankin Inlet is so far north that its climate is affected by its latitude and so it is cold year 'round.) This area has a temperature range of thirty degrees Celsius (over twenty-five degrees), and receives a summer max in precipitation, and under one thousand milimetres of it. This ecozone is actually quite dry- receiving about two-hundred fifty to four-hundred milimetres of precipitation annually, and more of it the farther west you go.
Soil and Vegetation
Most of the ground in this ecozone is rock and tundra, and permafrost is present, which leaves poor soil that is unsuitable for agriculture.
The tree line is directly south of this ecozone, so full-sized trees cannot grow here. The cold temperature, high winds, and lack of precipitation limits vegetation to plants that grow low to the ground- stunted trees [23]. Examples of these include dwarf birch, alder, arctic willow, white spruce, black spruce, tamarack, least willow, net-veined willow and blue-green willow. Other species that grow here are the heath, lichen, northern Labrador tea, sedge species, sphagnum moss, cottongrass, ericaceous shrubs, shrub birch, crowberry, bearberry, moss campion, blueberry, mountain cranberry, cloudberry, and alpine club moss [22].
Wildlife
For wildlife in the Southern Arctic, conditions are extremely severe. This is why, like with vegetation, many animals are not able to survive here. Mammals and birds are common but reptiles and amphibians are unable to endure the low temperatures and harsh winds of the Southern Arctic.
Birds in this ecozone spend the winter further south, and migrate here in the springtime to breed. Some also pass overhead on their path further north. Four birds of prey found are the snowy owl, gyrfalcon, osprey, and rough-legged hawk. Waterfowl, songbirds, ground-dwelling birds, shorebirds and seabirds also live here; examples are the Canada goose, yellow-billed loon, lapland longspur, parasitic jaeger, raven, hoary redpoll, and Willow ptarmigan.
Of carnivorous mammals, large and small, one could find the grizzly bear, black bear and polar bear, red fox, arctic fox, lynx, coyote, as well as wolves. As for herbivores, there are barren-ground caribou, woodland caribou, moose, muskox, brown lemming, showshoe hare, arctic hare masked shrew, and many more.