Region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic
The
subarctic
zone is a region in the
Northern Hemisphere
immediately south of the true
Arctic
, north of
humid continental
regions and covering much of
Alaska
,
Canada
,
Iceland
, the north of
Fennoscandia
,
Northwestern Russia
,
Siberia
, and the
Cairngorms
. Generally, subarctic regions fall between 50°N and 70°N
latitude
, depending on local climates. Precipitation is usually low, and vegetation is characteristic of the
taiga
.
Daylight at these latitudes is quite extreme between summer and winter due to its high latitude. Near the summer
solstice
for instance, subarctic regions can experience an all-night period of either civil, nautical, or astronomical twilight (or in the northern reaches full daylight), but without true night, since the sun never dips more than 18 degrees below the horizon.
Noctilucent clouds
are best observed within this range of latitude.
Climate and soils
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Subarctic temperatures are above 10 °C (50 °F) for at least one and at most three months of the year. Precipitation tends to be low due to the low moisture content of the cold air but isn't to the point to
semiarid
regions. Precipitation is typically greater in warmer months, with a summer maximum ranging from moderate in
North America
to extreme in the
Russian Far East
. Except in the wettest areas glaciers are not large because of the lack of winter precipitation; in the wettest areas, however, glaciers tend to be very abundant and
Pleistocene
glaciation
covered even the lowest elevations.
Soils
of the subarctic are in which leaching of nutrients takes place even in the most heavily glaciated regions. The dominant soil orders are
podsols
[1]
and, further north,
gelisols
.
Subarctic regions are often characterized by
taiga
forest vegetation as
deciduous
trees can't withstand the long winters, though where winters are relatively mild, as in
northern Norway
,
broadleaf forest
may occur?though in some cases soils remain too saturated almost throughout the year to sustain
any
tree
growth and the dominant vegetation is a peaty herbland dominated by
grasses
and
sedges
. Typically, there are only a few species of large terrestrial
mammals
in the subarctic regions, the most important being elk,
moose
(
Alces alces
),
bears
,
reindeer
(
Rangifer tarandus
), and
wolves
(
Canis lupus
).
Agriculture
is mainly limited to
animal husbandry
as many crops can't be grown here, though in some areas
barley
can be grown.
Canada
and
Siberia
are very rich in minerals, notably
nickel
,
molybdenum
,
cobalt
,
lead
,
zinc
and
uranium
,
[2]
whilst the
Grand Banks
and
Sea of Okhotsk
are two of the richest
fisheries
in the world and provide support for many small towns.
Except for those areas that are well-drained or adjacent to warm
ocean currents
, there is almost always continuous
permafrost
due to the very cold winters and short summers.
[3]
This means that building in most subarctic regions is very difficult and expensive: cities are very few (
Murmansk
being the largest) and generally small, whilst
roads
are also few. Subarctic rail transport only exists in
Europe
(lines to
Narvik
and Murmansk) and the
Norilsk
?
Dudinka
line in northern
Siberia
. An important consequence is that transportation usually tends to be restricted to
"bush" planes
,
helicopters
and, in summer,
riverboats
.
Economy
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Except for a few parts of
Europe
where the winters are relatively mild due to prevailing wind and ocean current patterns, subarctic regions were not explored until the 18th and 19th centuries. Even then, the difficulty of transportation ensured that few settlements (most of them are created for
mining
) lasted long?such as the abandoned, once-thriving cities of the
Yukon
,
Northwest Territories
[4]
and increasingly Siberia illustrate this.
The
Trans-Siberian Railway
, which skirts the edge of the region, provided a major boost to Russian settlement in the subarctic, as did the intensive industrialization under
Joseph Stalin
that relied on the enormous mineral resources of the
Central Siberian Plateau
. Today, many towns in subarctic Russia are declining precipitously as mines close. In Canada, after the early minerals ran out, development stalled until
hydroelectric
development occurred in the 1950s and 1960s.
Hydro-Quebec
in particular has carried out many engineering works in regions of near-continuous permafrost, but these have never supported a significant population and have only mainly served densely populated southern
Quebec
.
Tourism
in recent years has become a major source of revenue for most countries of the subarctic due to the beautiful, generally glacial landscapes so characteristic of the region. Most areas in the subarctic are among the most expensive places in the world to visit, due to both high costs of living and transportation inaccessibility. Nonetheless, the great opportunities for
outdoor recreation
lure an ever-increasing number of travelers. At the same time, the older industries of the subarctic (fishing, mining, hydroelectric power) are being threatened by both
environmental opposition
and
overfishing
leading to depleted stocks of commercially important species living in this region.
See also
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References
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External links
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]
- "Subarctic climate"
in: Ritter, Michael E.
The Physical Environment: an Introduction to Physical Geography
. 2006.