polar desert
Icy barren expanse
A polar desert is a region receiving very little precipitation, where extreme cold rather than heat creates arid conditions.
Antarctica and parts of the Arctic qualify—their moisture locked in ice rather than cycling through rainfall.
Despite snow and glaciers, these areas are technically deserts because so little new precipitation falls.
- ice capPermanent dome-shaped glacier
- lichenSymbiotic rock dweller
- permafrostPerpetually frozen earth layer
- ice coreGlacial sample revealing past
- extremophilesOrganisms surviving extreme conditions
subzero temperatures · extreme cold · Arctic · Greenland · cryosphere · tundra · frost heave · ice sheets · sublimation · wind chill · mosses · glacier · desiccation · scientific research stations · moraines · hyper-arid · Siberia · penguin
polar deserttropical rainforest
Humid equatorial biome with dense vegetation
equatorial rainforest · jungle · Amazon rainforest · Congo rainforest · cloud forest
polar deserttropical rainforest
Humid equatorial biome with dense vegetation
coral reef · mangrove forest · old-growth forest · river delta · prairie
polar deserthot desert
Dry region, high temperatures
Sahara Desert · Arabian Desert · Death Valley · equatorial region · tropics