Arctic - Wildlife, Mammals, Birds | Britannica

Arctic

Table of Contents

Introduction
Physical geography
- The land
  - Geology
  - Continental ice sheets of the past
  - Terrain
  - Drainage and soils
  - Present-day glaciation
  - Greenland ice sheet
  - Other glacier groups
- Climate
- Plant and animal life
  - Vegetation
  - Animal life
    - Animals of the land and fresh water
    - Marine fauna
The people
- Adaptations to local environments
- Identification of Eastern and Western Arctic cultures
- Relations with the encompassing nation-states
- Peoples and cultures of the Eurasian Arctic and subarctic
  - Ethnic composition
  - Peoples of Fennoscandia and northwestern Siberia
  - North-central and northeastern Siberian groups
  - Linguistic affiliations
  - Demography
  - History of settlement
  - Traditional culture
- Peoples and cultures of the American Arctic
  - Linguistic composition
  - Ethnic groups
  - History of settlement
  - Traditional cultures
    - Seasonally migratory peoples: the northern Yupiit and the Inuit
    - Sedentary peoples: the southern Yupiit and the Unangan (Aleuts)
  - Historical developments
    - Greenland
    - Southern and southwestern Alaska
    - Canada and northern Alaska
  - Contemporary developments
The economy
- Resources
  - Mineral resources
  - Biological resources
  - Other renewable resources
- Transportation
  - Water transport
  - Land transport
  - Air transport
- Human resources
- Political and environmental issues
  - Administration
  - Environmental concerns
  - The Arctic in international affairs
Study and exploration
- The Northeast Passage
  - English and Dutch exploration of the Eurasian Arctic
  - Early Russian exploration
  - Conquest of the Northeast Passage
- The Northwest Passage
  - Early voyages of exploration
  - 19th-century attempts at the passage
  - Traverses of the passage in the 20th century
- Whale fisheries and the fur trade
- The North Pole
  - Attempts from Svalbard and Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat)
  - The Fram expedition
  - The race for the pole
- Scientific exploration
  - Svalbard
  - The Russian Arctic
  - Greenland(Kalaallit Nunaat)
  - The North American Arctic
  - The Arctic Ocean

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

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mountain peaks, Nunavut, Canada

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white-tailed ptarmigan with winter plumage

white-tailed ptarmigan with summer plumage

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Animal life in the Arctic, compared with that of warmer parts, is poor in the number of species but often rich in individual numbers. This is generally considered to be the result of at least two factors: the comparative novelty of polar glacial climates, allowing only a limited time for adaptation since their onset, and the much lesser variety of habitats available for colonization in the north as compared with the lower latitudes. The fauna considered in this section is from the true Arctic Zone only. On the land, this is the zone north of the tree line; in the ...(100 of 37874 words)

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