Abstract
Tundra and polar desert environments characterize the islands of the Western Canadian Arctic. Prince Patrick Island is a typical polar semi-desert; Banks Island illustrates the intermixing of polar-desert and tundra environments. Interpretation of these periglacial landscapes must consider not only the normal links that exist between rocks, relief, climate and weathering but also specific relationships between low temperature, aridity, snow, frozen ground, wind and vegetation.
Highlights
Periglacial environments are those in which cold, non-glacial processes dominate.Frost action and either seasonally or perennially-frozen ground are central characteristics (French, 2007)
This paper describes the polar semi-desert and tundra environments that occur on two islands located between latitudes 72o and 77o N in the Western Canadian Arctic
A similar but more abrupt transition occurs on Prince Patrick Island (Tedrow et al, 1968) where the vegetation cover is often less than 10% and areas of wellvegetated tundra are restricted to depressions and areas adjacent to drainage channels
Summary
Periglacial environments are those in which cold, non-glacial processes dominate. Frost action and either seasonally or perennially-frozen ground (permafrost) are central characteristics (French, 2007). Periglacial environments range between polar desert, tundra, shrub tundra and boreal forest or taiga. In the montane environments of central Asia and Tibet, they range between steppe, steppe-tundra and semi-desert. This paper describes the polar semi-desert and tundra environments that occur on two islands located between latitudes 72o and 77o N in the Western Canadian Arctic (Fig. 1). Banks Island, the fourth largest in the Canadian Arctic, covers an area of ~70,000 km. Banks Island is separated from the mainland of Canada by Amundsen Gulf while M’Clure Strait separates Prince Patrick Island from Banks Island. These water bodies are ice-covered for more than 8-9 months of the year.
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