Climate of the tundra. What prevents water from seeping into the tundra soil?

The word "tundra" in Finnish means "treeless" bare heights. And in fact, it occupies vast territories of the Northern Hemisphere in subarctic latitudes, where mossy and lichen vegetation prevail in conditions of a rather tough climate. Spaces are distinguished by the absence of tall trees, although the tundra and forest-tundra border on the luxurious taiga forests. Only perennial grasses and small bushes cover the cold earth during periods of short summer.

Because of the high relative humidity and low evaporation, the effect of swampiness of land in these harsh places arises. But what prevents water from seeping into the tundra soil?

Climate

The zone of the tundra stretches along a narrow strip along the north of Eurasia and North America, with more regions in Russia and Canada. The climate is subarctic and subantarctic. With strong wind and air temperatures in winter to -30 °, and in summer hardly reaching + 5 + 10 ° Celsius, even coniferous trees do not grow here.

A long snowy winter and only 2-3 relatively warm months per year contribute to the fact that the tundra suffers from an excess of moisture. The low temperature regime does not allow it to evaporate, swamping huge areas. Winter for the tundra is a polar night, and in the summer the sun shines almost the whole day. Spring and autumn with the manifestation of all their signs fit into a single month - May and September respectively. Characterized by the rapid descent of low snow cover and the same rapid return of it as early as the beginning of October.

Characteristic features of tundra soil

Features of the hard subarctic and subantarctic climate, as well as soil - that's what prevents water from seeping into the tundra soil. Thaws are sufficient only for thawing only the upper layers of the earth to a shallow depth. The permafrost transforms the tundra soil into an icy lump, and such a state does not change.

In winter, a lot of snow falls in these parts, but it lies on a deserted plain with a thin layer, since the strongest wind blows away most of it.

Gley and stony soils have a characteristic rusty and gray color. The layers of soil cover of the tundra then thaw, then freeze, gradually intermixing with each other. Thus, humus, humus and peat are lowered to a meter depth. When the abundance of moisture clay and loamy soil swam. On flat plains, the earth literally sags under the weight of a man, trying to suck it into a thick quagmire. However, the peat layer does not exceed 50 centimeters because of the scarce cover of herbaceous plants and moss. On sandy dehydrated plots, the soil layer is podzols and substrata.

What prevents water from seeping into the tundra soil?

While the issue is not fully disclosed. What prevents water? Seepage into the tundra soil moisture only in the summer, through the peat cushion and formed by strong frost cracks. But since in winter the earth freezes to a depth of one and a half kilometers and in a short warm period does not have time to thaw, the boundary layer, turned literally into a stone-ice crust, becomes an insurmountable obstacle for water.

Thus, the answer to the question of what prevents water from seeping into the tundra soil is simple and logical: the permafrost does not allow moisture to seep deeply, and the water does not warm up to such an extent as to melt the frozen ground through the earth. This is how the vast and unheated tundra lives for millennia.