Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
2.0 m in the Low Arctic, from 0.4 to 1.0 m in the Mid-Arctic, and from 0.25 to
0.9 m in the High Arctic. Common vegetation types in the Arctic are erect shrub
land, peaty graminoid tundra, barrens, mineral graminoid tundra, prostrate-
shrub tundra, and wetlands. The relief in the circumarctic commonly is fl at to
undulating with elevations generally below 500 m. Patterned ground is ubiqui-
tous in the Arctic. Cryosols in the circumarctic have been derived from a variety
of parent materials, including marine and lacustrine, glacial, windblown, col-
luvium, and residuum.
Common soil properties of Arctic soils are permafrost within 1-2 m of the sur-
face, cryoturbation, cryodesiccation, and accumulation of segregated ice. Chemical
and physical properties vary signifi cantly in response to the action of the soil-
forming factors, but the accumulation of organic matter and the development of
redoximorphic features are common.
There is a strong latitudinal gradient in soil-forming processes in the Arctic. As
one progresses to the north, there is a reduction in redoximorphism (gleization),
melanization (organic matter accumulation), podzolization, and textural differentia-
tion and an increase in latitude and an increase in calcifi cation, salinization, and
desert pavement formation as the climate becomes more arid.
Turbels are the dominant soils in the circumarctic permafrost region, followed by
Histels and Orthels. Countries with the largest area of cryosols (excluding mountain
cryosols) are Russia, Canada, the USA, and Greenland.
References
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