The Beringia lowland tundra is a tundraecoregion of North America, on the west coast of Alaska, mostly covered in wetland.
Setting
These are areas of flat, wet, lowland on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska north as far as the Kotzebue Sound, and on the eastern coasts of the offshore St Lawrence Island and St. Matthew Island. Lakes and ponds cover almost a quarter of the area, and wetlands cover most of it. The southern Bristol Bay end of this coast receives much more rainfall than Kotzebue Sound in the north.
Flora
These flat lands are mostly covered in sedges and grass with shrubland on the more sloping areas such as Bristol Bay. Sedge plants include Eriophorum angustifolium and Carex species, while the dominant shrubs are ericas such as crowberry (Empetrum nigrum).
Fauna
Wildlife includes large colonies of seabirds on the islands and waterbirds and shorebirds in the many wetlands such as the Kuskokwim River delta, one of the largest waterbird nesting areas in the world and home to the world's largest communities of tundra swan, most of the world's emperor goose, and half of the world's black brant (Branta bernicla). The lagoon that forms the heart of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska Peninsula has also long been recognised as an important staging ground for migrating birds. Other birds of the coastal wetlands include bristle-thighed curlew, dotterel, bar-tailed godwit, and Pacific golden plover while seabirds of include Steller's eider and the large colonies of murre on the islands.
