Cold Environments

What Cold Environments covers

Cold Environments is examined in Paper 1, Living with the physical environment. It covers cold environment characteristics, interdependence and adaptations, cold environment biodiversity, opportunities and challenges of developing a cold environment and protecting wilderness: balancing development and conservation.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Cold environment characteristics, interdependence and adaptationsPolar and tundra environments, their long freezing winters and low precipitation, permafrost and the active layer, nutrient-poor soils, the links between plants, animals and people, and how plants and animals adapt to the cold.Open →
• Cold environment biodiversityWhy so few species live in the cold and why that makes the ecosystem fragile, and the threats from warming, thawing permafrost, oil spills, roads, over-fishing, pollution and hunting.Open →
• Opportunities and challenges of developing a cold environmentMineral extraction, energy, fishing and tourism as opportunities, the challenges of extreme cold, inaccessibility and building on permafrost, and Alaska's oil, Trans-Alaska Pipeline, mines, fisheries and tourism, with the Exxon Valdez spill.Open →
• Protecting wilderness: balancing development and conservationWhy cold regions count as wilderness and matter to scientists, climate and indigenous people, why damage must be prevented, and the roles of technology, governments, international agreements and conservation groups.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Cold Environments further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Polar region vs Tundra

  Polar region: ground that stays covered by ice and snow all year round. Tundra: a treeless zone where the surface thaws for a short summer.

• Permafrost vs Active layer

  Permafrost: ground that has stayed frozen for at least two years. Active layer: the thin surface soil that thaws each summer and refreezes each winter.

• National park vs Environmental impact assessment

  National park: a protected reserve created by a government to limit development. Environmental impact assessment: a study of likely damage demanded before permission is granted.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What are the two types of cold environment, and how do they differ?

   Model answer

   Polar regions, which stay covered by ice and snow all year round, and tundra, which is a treeless zone where the surface thaws for a short summer.

2. 2

   Describe the climate of a cold environment through the year.

   Model answer

   Long, dark winters hold temperatures far below freezing and the short summer lifts them only a little above 0 °C, while precipitation is very low and falls mostly as snow.

3. 3

   What is permafrost, and what is the active layer that lies above it?

   Model answer

   Permafrost is ground that has stayed frozen for at least two years, and the active layer is the thin surface soil above it that thaws each summer and refreezes each winter.

4. 4

   How are the climate, the permafrost and the soil of a cold environment linked in summer?

   Model answer

   The cold keeps the ground frozen, and because meltwater cannot drain away through the permafrost the thin soil above is left waterlogged and boggy.

5. 5

   Explain why the soils are so short of nutrients, and what that means for the plants growing in them.

   Model answer

   Decomposition is extremely slow in the cold, so little humus forms, and only slow-growing, undemanding plants such as mosses, lichens and dwarf shrubs can survive.

6. 6

   How do the animals and the people of a cold environment depend on its plants?

   Model answer

   Herds such as caribou and musk oxen graze the mosses, lichens and dwarf shrubs, and people rely on those herds for meat, skins and fuel because no crops will grow.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Cold Environments revision questions

What does Cold Environments cover in AQA GCSE Geography?

4 subtopics: cold environment characteristics, interdependence and adaptations, cold environment biodiversity, opportunities and challenges of developing a cold environment and protecting wilderness: balancing development and conservation. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Cold Environments organised?

By the AQA 8035 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.