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Latitude altitude and climate characteristics

Distribution of cold environments vary and are found

in different places where there are different climate
characteristics depending on latitude and altitude.

Polar environments

Arctic polar environment is cold as it is placed at a

high altitude.
Average temperatures below 10* in July
Some areas of Antarctica have high altitude due to
the ice being thick and can reach altitudes of over
4000m.
A large area of Antarctica is made up of sea ice and
throughout the year the ice melts during summer
and freezes during winter.
Polar climate have average temperature of less than
10 C (50 F). Regions with polar climate cover more
than 20% of the Earth.

Alpine

Cold areas of land at an altitude above treeline,

which is the limit at which trees wouldnt be
able to grow above that altitude.
Always found at high altitudes, mountain
ranges such as the Alps.
Environments include perigalcial and glacial
conditions.
Places of high altitude in alpine areas will have
some snow and ice, which is due to less heat
not being able to be absorbed by the thin air.
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Summer temperature range between -12

degrees Celsius to 10 degrees Celsius. The
average precipitation is 30 cm a year.

Glacial environments

Environments that are currently covered by

ice sheets and glaciers.
These are permanently cold enough for ice
to remain on the landscape throughout the
year.
2 most covered areas are the ice sheets
and ice shelves of Antarctica and
Greenland.
10 % of land area of earth is covered
by ice, including
glaciers, ice
caps and ice
sheets.

Periglacial

Periglacial was
originally used to
describe places near to or on the fringe
of ice sheets or glaciers.

With some seasonal temperature

variation where the mean temperatures
for at least some period in the summer
rise above 0C;
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Where freeze-thaw cycles dominate the

landform creating processes;

Which have a distinctive ecosystem adapted to

the Periglacial environment.

Such areas as these now make up

approximately 25% of the worlds total land
are.

periglacial climate, with mean annual

temperatures of -7C and summer highs
reaching +8C. It has a semi-arid climate, with
precipitation (mainly as snow) between 200
and 500 mm per annum