The Beringia lowland tundra is a flat, wetland-rich tundra ecoregion along the Bering Sea coast of western Alaska, from Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta north to Kotzebue Sound and the Seward Peninsula, including offshore islands such as St. Lawrence. Lakes and ponds cover nearly a quarter of the area, and sedge- and grass-dominated wet meadows give way to dwarf-shrub heath and crowberry on better-drained, sloping ground. The subarctic climate brings harsh winters and cool summers, with rainfall ranging from roughly 250 mm near Kotzebue Sound to far wetter conditions toward Bristol Bay. Globally important for waterbirds, it hosts the world's largest tundra swan communities, most of the emperor goose population, and is largely intact, much of it protected within refuges like the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

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 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer 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