The Pacific Coastal Mountain icefields and tundra is a tundra ecoregion of the Coast Ranges, stretching from south-central Alaska's Kenai Peninsula through British Columbia and into the Yukon, with elevations from sea level to over 4,500 m. Its extensive glaciers form one of the largest nonpolar icefields in the world, and much of the terrain lies beneath ice and is largely unvegetated. Where ground is exposed, vegetation is dominated by dwarf and low shrub communities, including mountain heath and ericaceous shrubs, grading into subalpine forest and coastal rainforest at lower elevations. The climate is cold and very wet, with a mean annual temperature near -0.5°C and most precipitation falling as snow. Protected areas include Kenai Fjords and Glacier Bay National Parks and parts of the Kluane-Wrangell-St. Elias UNESCO World Heritage system.

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.

National refinement sub-regions

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