The Northern Arctic Ecozone, as defined by the
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), is a Canadian terrestrial
ecozone An Ecozone may refer to:
* Ecozone (Canada), one of 15 first-level ecological land classifications in Canada
* Biogeographic realm, the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface (referred to as ''ecozone'' by BBC)
* Biome, a large c ...
which includes most of the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark).
Situated in the northern extremity of No ...
, the
Boothia and
Melville Peninsulas of
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
, and the northwestern tip of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. Its marine borders are with the
Arctic Archipelago Marine Ecozone, and it is adjacent to the mainland
Southern Arctic Ecozone.
Sparsely populated, it is home to 15,000 inhabitants, approximately 80% of whom are
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
. The largest settlement is
Iqaluit
Iqaluit ( ; , ; ) is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, its largest community, and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on which the city is situated. In 1987, its t ...
.
The cold winters are very dark, typically having no daylight for weeks or even months north of the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...
.
Geography
Palaeozoic and
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
forms the western portion of the ecozone, whereas
Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
is the dominant feature in the east.
Broad flat plains are common on the coastlines, and extend inland up to in some parts.
In the east, plateaus and rocky hills merge into the foothills of the
Arctic Cordillera
The Arctic Cordillera is a terrestrial ecozone in northern Canada characterized by a vast, deeply dissected chain of mountain ranges extending along the northeastern flank of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from Ellesmere Island to the northeas ...
.
The west is characterised by glacial deposits and "frost-shattered limestone"
and sandstone.
A permanent layer of
permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
may be up to one kilometre thick, and lies under a shallow stratum of waterlogged active soils that cyclically freeze and thaw, creating
patterned ground.
Its features are similar to the
badland
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...
s found in the southwestern
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Ecoprovinces
This ecozone can be further subdivided into seven ecoprovinces:
*
Baffin Uplands
*
Boothia-Foxe Shield
*
Ellesmere Basin
*
Foxe-Boothia Lowlands
*
Parry Channel Plateau
*
Sverdrup Island
*
Victoria Lowlands
Climate
The region is extremely cold, with temperatures rising above the
freezing point
The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends ...
only in July and August. Short, cold summers give way to bitterly cold, dark winters with mean January temperatures less than −30 °C in the northern islands.
Little
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
falls here, with a typical annual total of 250 mm, but may exceed 500 mm in its extreme southeastern extent.
Snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
fall may occur at any time, and snow cover persists from September to June.
Despite the low precipitation, the permafrost's ability to prevent water from draining through the soil, and the abundant snow and ice cover throughout the zone ensure that the climate is usually moist.
The northern waters are permanently frozen, but coastal areas in the south may open in the summer, though numerous large
ice floes
An ice floe () is a large pack ice, pack of Drift ice, floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice fl ...
persist.
Conservation
A number of
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
s have been established to protect representative and/or significant portions of this ecozone. These include
Aulavik National Park
Aulavik National Park ( ); from the Inuvialuktun for "place where people travel") is a National Parks of Canada, national park located on Banks Island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is known for its access to the Thomsen River, one of ...
,
Auyuittuq National Park
Auyuittuq National Park ( iu, ᐊᐅᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ, , "the land that never melts") is a national park located on Baffin Island's Cumberland Peninsula, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, the largest political subdivision of Canada. The park was ...
,
Sirmilik National Park,
Qausuittuq National Park,
Quttinirpaaq National Park
Quttinirpaaq National Park is located on the northeastern corner of Ellesmere Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is the second most northerly park on Earth after Northeast Greenland National Park. In Inuktitut, Quttinirpaaq me ...
, and
Ukkusiksalik National Park
Ukkusiksalik National Park () is a national park in Nunavut, Canada. It covers of tundra and coastal mudflats south of the Arctic Circle and the hamlet of Naujaat (formerly Repulse Bay), from Hudson Bay's Roes Welcome Sound towards the west ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Ecozones and ecoregions of Nunavut
Ecozones and ecoregions of the Northwest Territories
Ecozones and ecoregions of Quebec
Geography of the Arctic