The landscape is dominated by massive polar icefields, alpine glaciers, inland fjords, and large bordering bodies of water, distinctive of many similar arctic regions in the world.

In addition, the landscape is 75% covered by ice or exposed bedrock, with a continuous permafrost that persists throughout the year, making plant and animal life somewhat scarce.

The landscape is dominated by massive polar ice fields, alpine glaciers, inland fjords, and large bordering bodies of water, distinctive of many similar arctic regions in the world.

In addition, the landscape is 75% covered by ice or exposed bedrock, with a continuous permafrost that persists throughout the year, making plant and animal life somewhat scarce.

The first inhabitants of Ellesmere Island were small bands of Inuit drawn to the area for Peary caribou, muskox, and marine mammal hunting about 1000–2000 BC.

An outpost was established at Dundas Harbour in August 1924 as part of a government presence intended to curb foreign whaling and other activity.

"[9] Sirmilik National Park in northern Baffin Island harbours large populations of thick-billed murres, black-legged kittiwakes and greater snow geese.

Auyuittuq National Park, located on Baffin Island's Cumberland Peninsula, features the many terrains of Arctic wilderness such as fjords, glaciers, and ice fields.

The Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve, located on the Labrador Peninsula, covers much of the southern end of the Arctic Cordillera.

The drier northern section of the Arctic Cordillera is largely covered with ice caps while glaciers are more common at the more humid southern end.

[16] The northern portion of the Arctic Cordillera was uplifted during the Innuitian orogeny when the North American Plate moved northward during the mid-Mesozoic.

Mountains on Axel Heiberg Island consist mainly of long ridges of folded mid-Mesozoic and Palaeozoic strata with minor igneous intrusions.

The mineral resources have not been greatly exploited, however, because the region's remote location makes development too costly when cheaper alternatives exist further south.

Mountains on southeastern Ellesmere Island are principally made of granitic gneiss, magmatic, undifferentiated intrusive and volcanic rocks.

These mountains were formed millions of years ago during the mid-Mesozoic when the North American Plate moved northward, pushing earth and rock upwards.

However, as the Appalachian Mountains are slightly older, their cliffs have been eroded, and are less jagged than those of the Arctic Cordillera.This ecoregion is also home to very limited amounts of exposed soil.

The Strand Fiord volcanics are encased in marine strata and thin southward from a maximum thickness of more than 789 m (2,589 ft) on northwestern Axel Heiberg to a zero edge near the southern shore of the island.

Tholeiitic icelandite basalt flows are the main constituent of the formation with pyroclastic conglomerates, sandstones, mudrocks and rare coal seams also present.

The pyroclastic lithologies become more common near the southern and eastern edges of the formation and represent lahars and beach to shallow marine reworked deposits.

The Bravo Lake Formation in central Baffin Island is a rare alkaline suite that formed as a result of submarine rifting during the Paleoproterozoic period.

Due to the extremely cold, dry climate, along with the ice-fields and lack of soil materials, the high and mid-elevations are largely devoid of significant populations of plants.

[22] Due to the harsh environments and extremely low temperatures that encompass the Arctic Cordillera, there is not a large variety of plants and animals that are able to survive and exist as a population.

[23] The large carnivorous species defines the ecoregion due to its intimate relationship with the ice as well as its extremely intelligent hunting tactics.

[28] In the Arctic Cordillera however, the black spruce population is in good health, and is slowly gaining habitat through the retreat of polar ice.

[32] Further conservation efforts have involved more physically demanding solutions, including the recommended funding of specialized technical machines that have the capability to remove debris that commonly kills these whales due to entanglement and accidental indigestion.

Tree stumps were discovered in 1985 on Axel Heiberg Island dating back 40 million years, indicating this northerly part of the cordillera was warmer and wetter than its present-day climate, with much more biodiversity.

[34] Only about 2,600 people live in the region, found primarily in the communities of Clyde River, Qikiqtarjuaq (formerly known as Broughton Island), and Pond Inlet.

The Arctic Cordillera is a cold, harsh environment making plant life and animal-life sparse; even soil is rare in this ecoregion.

[36] Fish, clams, and shrimp are just a few of the resources the local Inuit communities of Nunavut use in the highly productive waters to support their economy.

Researchers of global warming also express concern for the economic, political, and social consequences of the resulting decline in fisheries stocks expected because of the changing climate.