Arctic Tundra Ecosystem
By: Dylan Miller
Nitrogen Cycle
One of the abiotic factors of the tundra is that it has very little precipitation. Precipitation deposits nitrogen right in to the soil. Due to this, the arctic in general just does not have a lot of nitrogen. The nitrogen that is there soaks into the soil that The plants use for themselves. They then get rid of the extra nitrogen and the decomposers come in and decompose it. There really is only one type of decomposer in the arctic which is bacteria.
Oxygen Cycle
The oxygen cycle begins with the sun giving oxygen to plants. The plants photosynthesize and then animals such as the grizzly bear and arctic ground squirrel consume the plants because they are omnivores. Once these animals die then they release oxygen back in to the air and the whole thing starts over again.
Carbon Cycle
The carbon cycle begins when the sun gives energy to plants that then use respiration to release nutrients that animals then consume. Once those animals die, decomposers come along and do their job of decomposing dead things. The decomposers, bacteria, then release the energy back into the ecosystem.
Water Cycle
The water cycle begins when it rains. Most of that rain then soaks into the soil and turns into permafrost. The other place the rain goes is into water bodies. The reason there is so little precipitation is because most of the rain gets soaked into the soil and not back into the air.
Energy Flow
The energy enters the arctic biome through the sun. The sun is not out for most of the day in the arctic because the arctic experiences very short days. There are actually a lot of plants in the tundra. These plants only grow for about 50-90 days a year and only short rooted plants are able to survive because of the permafrost. Then plants photosynthesize. The few animals that inhabit the area, such as the arctic ground squirrel, grizzly bear, polar bear, arctic fox, caribou, musk oxen, hares, then take the byproducts for themselves. After those animals die, the energy basically decomposes into the soil and that is the end.