the Arctic

The Arctic is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, the densest planet in the Solar System, the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets, and the only astronomical object known to harbor life.

Melting ice – the future of the Arctic | DW Documentary by DW Documentary

The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.

Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

The Republic of Iceland, Lýðveldið Ísland in Icelandic, is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Russia, also officially known as the Russian Federation, is a federal state in Eurasia.

Quarantine at the Edge of the World: Portraits from the Arctic by The Atlantic

Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra.

In physical geography, tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons.

In geology, permafrost is ground, including rock or soil, at or below the freezing point of water 0 °C for two or more years.

Arctic seas contain seasonal Sea ice in many places.

The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth's ecosystems.

For example, the cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions.

Indigenous peoples, also known as First peoples, Aboriginal peoples or Native peoples, are ethnic groups who are the original settlers of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently.

In recent years, the extent of the sea ice has declined.

Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice, zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants and human societies.

Birds, also known as Aves, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton.

Phytoplankton are the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key part of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems.

Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence.

Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic.

The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, the Shetland Islands, and the Cairngorms.