How the plants can survive in Tundra where temperature reaches -57oC?
It is quite true that soil temperatures where the living parts of the plants are during winter are not as cold as the surface temperature. That is the first fact. The second thing that comes into play is that plants produce chemicals that depress the freezing point of water and prevent ice crystals from forming and rupturing cell walls. The next factor is that many plants forms seeds or spores that are biologically inactive when conditions are not suitable for growth. This is sort of a suspended animation. It is also important to recall that plants even as large as trees have only a very small proportion of actual “living material.” In a tree in winter, the cambium and rootas are “alive” The cambium goes inactive and reactivates when spring comes and the roots remain fairly dormant through winter until warming weather stimulates the cambium back to life and the roots then beginning sending sap up the tree. The question is complex as plants vary from one celled organisms to trees.
