The Kalaallit Nunaat Arctic Steppe stretches across southwestern and southern-eastern Greenland, a mountainous coast of fjords, islands, and Precambrian granite cliffs facing Baffin Bay. Vegetation shifts with moisture: dwarf-scrub heath and steppe in dry areas, grass-dominated steppe (purple reedgrass, Lapland reedgrass, Alaskan wheatgrass) inland, and low forests of green alder, downy birch, and Greenland mountain ash in warmer southwestern fjords. The climate ranges from low to high Arctic with low precipitation that varies sharply, from roughly 900 mm annually in the south (Nanortalik) to about 200 mm in the northwest (Upernavik). Only about a third (33%) of the ecoregion is protected, within Northeast Greenland National Park, though much of the unprotected area remains intact; the white-tailed eagle is its flagship species.

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 CHELSA-derived 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