A circumpolar distribution is any range of a taxon that occurs over a wide range of longitudes but only at high latitudes; such a range therefore extends all the way around either the North Pole or the South Pole. Taxa that are also found in isolated high-mountain environments further from the poles are said to have arctic–alpine distributions.
Animals with circumpolar distributions include the reindeer, polar bear, Arctic fox, snowy owl, snow bunting, king eider, brent goose and long-tailed skua in the north, and the Weddell seal and Adélie penguin in the south.
Plants with northern circumpolar distributions include Eutrema edwardsii (syn. Draba laevigata), Saxifraga oppositifolia, Persicaria vivipara and Honckenya peploides.
References
- ^ Vladimir Kotlyakov & Anna Komarova (2006). Elsevier's Dictionary of Geography: in English, Russian, French, Spanish and German. Elsevier. p. 119. ISBN 9780080488783.
- ^ "Circumpolar distribution". Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
- ^ Peter D. Moore (2009). "Types of tundra". Tundra. Ecosystem Series. Infobase Publishing. pp. 64–85. ISBN 9781438118727.
- T. Kue Young, ed. (2011). "Plants and animals". Circumpolar Health Atlas. University of Toronto Press. pp. 21–33. ISBN 978-1-4426-4456-4.
- ^ Y. I. Chernov (1988). "Distribution of animals and plants". The Living Tundra. Studies in Polar Research. Cambridge University Press. pp. 101–118. ISBN 9780521357548.
- Roger L. Williams (2002). A Guide To Rocky Mountain Plants. Roberts Rinehart. p. 105. ISBN 9781461733492.
- Julia Sánchez Vilas (2007). Sexual dimorphism in ecological and physiological traits in the subdioecious dune plant Honckenya peploides (L.) Ehrh (Thesis). Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. hdl:10347/2341.
- Hultén, Eric (1962). The circumpolar plants. 1, Vascular cryptogams, conifers, monocotyledons. Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist & Wiksell.
- Hultén, Eric (1971). The circumpolar plants. 2, Dicotyledons. Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist & Wiksell.