The tundra biome is found primarily in the far north, stretching between 60° and 75° latitude along the Arctic coasts of North America, Europe, and Asia. It also exists at high elevations on every continent and in small pockets near Antarctica. Understanding where tundra occurs means looking at three distinct types: Arctic, alpine, and Antarctic tundra, each shaped by extreme cold but located in very different parts of the world.
Arctic Tundra Across the Northern Hemisphere
The vast majority of the world’s tundra sits in a band across the top of the Northern Hemisphere, hugging the Arctic coastline. This is the landscape most people picture when they think of tundra: flat, treeless, and underlain by permanently frozen ground called permafrost. It stretches across North America, Europe, and Siberia in Asia, forming one of the largest biomes on Earth.
In North America, much of Alaska and roughly half of Canada fall within the tundra biome. The northern edges of Alaska’s North Slope, Canada’s Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and the coastal margins of Greenland are all classic Arctic tundra. Moving east across the Atlantic, tundra covers Iceland’s interior highlands, northern Scandinavia (particularly the far north of Norway, Sweden, and Finland), and then extends in a massive swath across northern Russia and Siberia all the way to the Pacific coast. Russia contains more tundra than any other country, simply because of Siberia’s enormous size.
The southern boundary of Arctic tundra roughly follows the treeline, the point where conditions become too harsh for trees to grow. South of the tundra lies the taiga, or boreal forest, a belt of coniferous trees. The transition between the two is not a sharp line but a gradual zone where stunted, scattered trees thin out and eventually disappear. North of the tundra, the landscape gives way to polar ice caps.
What Defines the Boundaries
Tundra exists wherever temperatures stay too cold for trees to survive. In the Arctic, the average temperature during the warmest month stays below about 10°C (50°F). Winters are long and severe, and the growing season lasts only 6 to 10 weeks. Precipitation is surprisingly low, often comparable to a desert, but because evaporation is minimal in cold air, the ground stays waterlogged during summer.
Beneath the surface, permafrost locks the soil in a frozen state year-round, typically within two meters of the surface. This frozen layer prevents deep root growth and water drainage, which is why tundra vegetation stays low: mosses, lichens, grasses, and small shrubs rather than trees. The soils in these regions, known as Gelisols, are defined by their permafrost layer and are found throughout Arctic and high-mountain environments. Their frozen structure shapes everything about what can live above them.
Alpine Tundra on Mountain Ranges
Alpine tundra occurs above the treeline on mountains worldwide, and it looks remarkably similar to its Arctic counterpart despite being found at much lower latitudes. The key difference is altitude rather than latitude: climb high enough on almost any major mountain range and you’ll eventually pass above the treeline into tundra conditions.
The elevation where alpine tundra begins varies dramatically depending on location. In the Southern Rocky Mountains and California’s Sierra Nevada, treeline sits around 3,300 to 3,600 meters (roughly 10,800 to 11,800 feet). In the Himalayas, it occurs at similar elevations. But in the Andean steppe of Argentina, alpine tundra can start as low as 1,650 meters (about 5,400 feet), and on South Africa’s Lesotho Plateau, it begins around 2,300 meters (7,500 feet). The closer a mountain is to the poles, the lower the treeline drops.
Alpine tundra appears on mountains across North America (the Rockies, Alaska Range, Sierra Nevada), Europe (the Alps, Scandinavian mountains, Pyrenees), and Asia (the Himalayas, Altai, Ural Mountains). Smaller, more isolated patches exist in the Southern Hemisphere on the Andes, in parts of East Africa’s highest peaks, and on New Zealand’s Southern Alps. These alpine environments tend to support a richer variety of plant species than Arctic tundra, partly because mountain ranges span a wider range of climates and create more varied habitats.
Antarctic Tundra in the Southern Hemisphere
True tundra in the Southern Hemisphere is rare and much more limited in extent than its Arctic equivalent. The Antarctic continent is almost entirely covered by ice sheets, leaving very little exposed ground for tundra vegetation to take hold. What tundra does exist is concentrated on the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands.
The northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula supports tundra vegetation, along with parts of Deception Island and Joinville Island. These areas belong to the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea bioregion, where slightly milder maritime conditions allow mosses, lichens, and a handful of flowering plants to survive on ice-free ground. Sub-Antarctic islands like South Georgia, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Falkland Islands also support tundra-like ecosystems, though they’re often classified separately because of their milder, wetter conditions compared to true polar tundra.
How Much of the Earth Is Tundra
Arctic tundra alone covers roughly 10% of the Earth’s land surface, making it one of the planet’s major biomes despite its inhospitable reputation. When alpine tundra across all mountain ranges is added, the total extent grows further, though alpine patches are fragmented and harder to measure as a single area.
The biome’s boundaries are not static. As global temperatures rise, the treeline is gradually shifting northward and upward in many regions, meaning shrubs and small trees are colonizing areas that were previously open tundra. This process is slow on a human timescale but measurable over decades. Satellite imagery shows greening trends across parts of the Arctic, with taller vegetation expanding into formerly barren ground. For now, the tundra remains one of the least developed and least populated biomes on the planet, home to relatively few permanent human settlements but ecologically critical as a carbon storehouse locked in its frozen soils.