Antarctica is one of eight terrestrial ecozones. The ecozone includes Antarctica and several island groups in the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The continent of Antarctica has been too cold and dry to support virtually any vascular plants for millions of years, and its flora presently consists of around 250 lichens, 100 mosses, 25-30 liverworts, and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algal species, which live on the areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent. Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis), are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Several Antarctic island groups are considered part of the Antarctica ecozone, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, the Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, Heard Island, the Kerguelen Islands, and the McDonald Islands. These islands have a somewhat milder climate than Antarctica proper, and support a greater diversity of tundra plants, although they are all too windy and cold to support trees.

Four tundra ecoregions are recognized:

• Marielandia Antarctic tundra (includes the Antarctic Peninsula)
• Maudlandia Antarctic desert (eastern Antarctica)
• Scotia Sea Islands tundra (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island)
• Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra (Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, Heard Island, Kerguelen Islands, McDonald Islands)

Millions of years ago, Antarctica was warmer and wetter, and supported the Antarctic flora, including forests of podocarps and southern beech. The Antarctic flora has died out in Antarctica, and the Antarctic flora is an important component of the flora of southern Neotropic (South America) and Australasia.

Ecozones

Afrotropic | Antarctic | Australasia | Indomalaya | Nearctic | Neotropic | Oceania | Palearctic

Terrestrial biomes

Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests | Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests | Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests | Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests | Temperate coniferous forests | Boreal forests/taiga | Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands | Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands | Flooded grasslands and savannas | Montane grasslands and shrublands | Tundra | Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub | Deserts and xeric shrublands | Mangrove

See also

• List of palearctic ecoregions

External links

• Map of the ecozones

See also

• Life in the Freezer, a BBC television series on life on and around Antarctica