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Tundra Biome
Tundra, also known as "frozen prairie" - the cold plains of the Far North get their name from the Finnish word "tunturia" meanin treeless land, or the Lappish/Russian word "tūndâr", which means treeless mountain tract.
Tundra Mythology and Peoples 
The Arctic reindeer pastoralists, like the Yamal Nenets and Khanty, traveled great distances up and down the peninsula, moving from northern tundra pastures in summer to the more protected sub-Arctic taiga in winter. Beginning in the early 1930s, Yamal and other regions of the Russian north underwent a dramatic series of changes. Following Stalin's vision of socialist development, the Soviet government forced Nenets and Khanty reindeer breeders on to newly established collective farms. Children retained little knowledge of their parent's subsistence economy, family life, and native language. Three decades later, the collective farms were transformed again into state-owned "soviet farms." Deprived of their lands, subsistence rights, and reindeer, most Nenets of Yamal became hired workers in reindeer breeding state enterprises. Although about 1750 indigenous residents, comprising 343 households, still have small private herds, living on the tundra and more southern tiaga largely separate from the collective economic system. A major problem facing the people and the government is how to assure a sustainable future for Yamal's Nenets and Khanty peoples - culturally as well as environmentally.
The Inuit, or Eskimo, are an aboriginal people who make their home in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Siberia and North America.The word "Eskimo" was bestowed upon these hardy, resourceful hunters by their neighbors, the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada. It means "eaters of raw meat." Recently, it has begun to be replaced by the Eskimos' own name for themselves, "Inuit," which means, "real people." The Inuit are descended from whale hunters who migrated from Alaska to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic around 1000 AD . Major changes in Inuit life and culture occurred during the Little Ice Age (1600-1850), when the climate in their homelands became even colder. European whalers who arrived in the latter part of the nineteenth century had a strong impact on the Inuit. The Westerners introduced Christianity. They also brought with them infectious diseases that substantially reduced the Inuit population in some areas. When the whaling industry collapsed early in the twentieth century, many Inuit turned to trapping. Inuit today are much involved in the modern world. They have wholeheartedly adopted much of its technology, as well as its food, clothing, and housing customs. Their economic, religious, and government institutions have also been heavily influenced by mainstream culture. A tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, Alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra. Tundra vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra. The tundra biome is the coldest of all terrestrial eco-systems, and also the most chaotic. Still, the tundra is host to a surprising number of plants and animals, and represents a fascinating testament to nature's adaptability, and harsh beauty. Arctic tundra The arctic tundra occupies earth's Northern hemisphere, circling the North Pole all the way down to the evergreen forests of the boreal biomes. The arctic tundra sees little rainfall, contains areas of stark landscape, and is frozen for much of the year. During the winter it is very cold and dark, with the average temperature around -28 °C (-18 °F), it can dip as low as -50 °C (-58 °F). During the summer, temperatures rise somewhat, and the top layer of the permafrost melts, leaving the ground soggy. The tundra is covered in marshes, lakes, bogs and streams during the warm months. The soil of the arctic tundra is poor in nutrients, which accounts for the low amount of vegetation. There is an under-layer of soil called permafrost which remains completely frozen at all times, allowing little room for deep rooting plants and trees. The plants that do survive the frozen landscapes are extremely resilient, and their roots are close to the surface to intake what little water falls. Most of the arctic tundra's plant life consists of shrubbery, lichen, moss, and flowers. Icy rivers flow through the tundra to the arctic ocean, and are home to trout, salmon and other freshwater fish. The biodiversity of the tundras is low: around 1,700 species of vascular plants and only 48 land mammals can be found, although thousands of insects and birds migrate there each year for the marshes. Animals in the Arctic tundra include caribou or reindeer, musk ox, arctic hare, arctic fox, snowy owl, lemmings, and polar bears in north. All are greatly adapted to their environment, with extra layers of fat, and the ability to hibernate during the colder months, although this has more to do with the lack of food than the cold. Birds of the tundra migrate south during the winter months, causing constant change in the animal population.  Antarctic tundra occurs on Antarctica and on several Antarctic and sub-antarctic islands, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Kerguelen Islands. Antarctica is mostly too cold and dry to support vegetation, and most of the continent is covered by ice fields. However, the Antarctic Peninsula, have areas of rocky soil that support plant life. The flora presently consists of around lichens, mosses, liverworts, and terrestrial and aquatic algae species, which live on the areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent. In contrast with the Arctic tundra, the Antarctic tundra lacks a large mammal fauna, mostly due to its physical isolation from the other continents. Sea mammals and sea birds, including seals and penguins, inhabit areas near the shore. The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion includes the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands, the Campbell Island group, and Macquarie Island. Species endemic to this ecoregion include the only Subantarctic orchids; the royal penguin; and the Antipodean albatross. The flora and fauna of Antarctica and the Antarctic Islands (south of 60° south latitude) are protected by the Antarctic Treaty. Alpine tundra The alpine tundra biome exists on rocky mountaintops and is very similar to the arctic tundra except for a conspicuous lack of trees. Because trees cannot grow at this high altitude, most of the alpine tundra plant life consists of shrubbery and small leafy plants such as alpine bluegrass which serve as dinner to a variety of grazing animals such as bighorn sheep and mountain goats. 
Alpine tundra is distinguished from arctic tundra, because alpine tundra typically does not have permafrost, and alpine soils are generally better drained than arctic soils.
Alpine tundra transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as Krummholz, or crooked, bent, twisted wood (German). Other alpine tundra animals include elk, pika, marmots, and birds such as the white-tailed parmigan and the grouse, and a few insects like grasshoppers, bumblebees, and beetles.  A severe threat to the tundras, specifically to the permafrost, is global warming. The melting of the permafrost in a given area on human time scales (decades or centuries) could radically change which species can survive there. 
Another concern is that about one third of the world's soil-bound carbon is in taiga and tundra areas. When the permafrost melts, it releases carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are greenhouse gases.
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