Geography
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Major geographic areas in Canada
Location of interior arctic region
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The Canadian Arctic Region is a vast lands scape made of 94 major islands, 6 of which are of the worlds 30 largest and over 36 000 minor islands, making it the worlds largest high Arctic land area besides green land which is nearly completely covered in ice. Many large channels separating the islands are big enough to be classified as seas in other parts of the world.
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Climate
Canada's arctic is very far north, making it cold all year round. With lows of -20 degrees Celsius in the northern islands and lows of -6 degrees Celsius in southern islands, permafrost covers the arctic region with depths up to 550 m deep. Certain islands that are higher up in the arctic, with lows of -50 Celsius, are the only ones that are above freezing. However, this is only for a few months in the summer.
Flora and Fauna
Vegetation is not plentiful in these parts, even less so on the northern side of the mainland. The Arctic region has zero trees instead flora consists of dwarf shrubs, forbs, sedges, grasses, mosses and lichens. there are around 325 mosses, 100 liver warts and between 550-600 species of lichen. Many of these species are wide spread across the region. Along with vegetation there is also less animals o the northern side of the mainland as well, there are about 20 species that call this region home but generally reside to small groups. The Perry caribou, muskox, arctic fox, arctic wolf, lemming, arctic hare and over 60 species of birds except for in the winter where only 6 stay. The surrounding seas consist of polar bears, walrus, harbour, harp and ringed seals as well as many types of whale including but not limited too beluga and narwhal.
Human Geography
The Arctic lands population is very small with only 31 906 in Nunavut. The lack of population is due to the harsh climate and living conditions, making the cities very spread out across the landscape. Nunavut only has 28 cities within the whole territory, the tree largest in 2011 were Iqaluit with a population of 6 690, Rankin Inlet with 2 577 peoples and Arviat with 2 318 people. The three smallest also from 2011 were Umingmaktok with 5 peoples, Grise Fiord with 130 people and lastly Resolute with 214 people to call it home.
Environmental concerns |
Economy |
The big environmental concern beside the decreasing of the whale population due to over hunting, is the excessive amount of pollution from the many mines and other industries. This pollution effects a lot of the vegetation in the are, especially lichen that are plants without roots and get their nutrients mainly form the air. this isn't all pollution effects, heavy pollution also causes acid rain which melts the ice faster then it already is. Humans are trying to correctly address the problem by influencing the use of mass public transportation like buses as well as the use of electric cars.
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In the past the Arctic economy thrived on hunting and fishing as well as the gold rush and exploration. Currently hunting, fishing, whaling and sealing are still a big export but the major source of income is from oil and minerals. For example the Ekati mine in the eastern side of the Northwest Territories produced around 4 million carats of diamonds each year.
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Compared location
The Siberian tundra is very similar to the Canadian arctic lands in way of Flora Fauna and climate. In both locations, plants and animals have adapted to the harsh conditions by developing thicker fur or blubber (fat) as well as living closer together, having shorter roots, and living closer to the surface.
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In Vorkuta, Russia, many people still hunt and trap game (including fish) along with the Canadian arctic. They rely on industry such as oil, mining (for diamonds, precious minerals and metals)
Vorkuta, Russia climatograph
Vorkuta, Russia climatograph