Welcome to this deck on cold environments, an optional topic in the Living World section of AQA GCSE Geography. Before you start, please check with your teacher that this is one of the options your school is studying. In this deck, we'll explore the harsh physical characteristics of polar and tundra regions, discover the amazing ways plants and animals have adapted to survive, and investigate the opportunities and challenges for human development in these extreme parts of our planet.

When we talk about cold environments, we're generally referring to two main types: polar environments and tundra environments. Polar regions are the coldest places on Earth, found around the North and South Poles. Tundra environments are found just south of the polar regions in the Northern Hemisphere, for example, in northern Canada and Siberia. They are still extremely cold, but not quite as severe as the polar regions.

The climate in cold environments is defined by extreme cold and very low levels of precipitation. Winters are long and dark, with temperatures often plummeting far below freezing. Summers are very short and cool. In terms of precipitation, these areas are often described as 'cold deserts' because the air is too cold to hold much moisture, so snowfall is actually quite light.

Let's look more closely at polar environments. These are areas covered by ice caps and glaciers, like Antarctica and most of Greenland. The climate is incredibly severe. Average winter temperatures can drop below minus 50 degrees Celsius. There is almost no soil, and very little vegetation can survive here.