The Aleutian Islands tundra spans the 1,500-km arc of volcanic islands stretching from the Alaska Peninsula toward Russia's Kamchatka, plus the Pribilof Islands, dividing the North Pacific from the Bering Sea. Treeless maritime tundra covers the islands: dwarf scrub of crowberry and willows on exposed high ground, bluejoint-grass meadows on moist sites, and heath, sedge, and sphagnum bogs in the lowlands. The climate is cool and maritime, with mild winters, cool summers, and annual precipitation ranging from roughly 530 to 2,080 mm. About 98% of the ecoregion is protected within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which supports breeding habitat for an estimated 40 million seabirds.

At a glance

About the tundra biome

Treeless polar and high-mountain landscapes of low shrubs, sedges, mosses, and lichens, where cold and a short growing season cap plant height. Soils are frequently frozen as permafrost, and these systems recover only slowly from disturbance.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's NRCan Plant Hardiness Zone 1981-2010 GeoTIFF published current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions