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- The Canadian Arctic tundra is a biogeographic designation for Northern Canada's terrain generally lying north of the tree line or boreal forest, that corresponds with the Scandinavian Alpine tundra to the east and the Siberian Arctic tundra to the west inside the circumpolar tundra belt of the Northern Hemisphere. Canada's northern territories encompass a total area of 2,600,000 km2 (1,000,000 sq mi), 26% of the country's landmass that includes the Arctic coastal tundra, the Arctic Lowlands and the Innuitian Region in the High Arctic. Tundra terrain accounts for approximately 1,420,000 km2 (550,000 sq mi) in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, in Nunavut, north-eastern Manitoba, northern Ontario, northern Quebec, northern Labrador and the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, of which Baffin Island with 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq mi) is the largest. Canada's tundra is characterized by extreme climatic conditions with year-round frozen grounds, long and cold winters, a very short growing season and low precipitation rates. The Canadian Arctic tundra is the traditional home of indigenous peoples, predominately Inuit, who for most of their settlement history occupied the coastal areas of Nunavut, Nunavik (northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador), the Northwest Territories and formerly in Yukon. Population numbers remain very moderate for the entire region and as of 2006 around 50% of the inhabitants are of indigenous descent. Changing climate, recorded and documented over several decades has already caused noticeable regional environmental instability and threatened or endangered a number of species. Tundra is predominant in: 1.
* Canada's northern mainland - the terrain north of the arboreal taiga belt, east and west of Hudson Bay 2.
* the islands of the Arctic Archipelago - bordered by the Beaufort Sea, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay (en)
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