Queen Victoria Sea the Sjuøyane in Svalbard and as far east as Rudolf Island in the Franz Josef Archipelago. The islands of Kvitøya and Victoria Island are located at the southern limit of this Arctic sea. To the south lies the Barents Sea. Queen Victoria Sea The Queen Victoria Sea (, "Morye Korolevy Viktorii") is a body of water in the Arctic Ocean, stretching from northeast of Svalbard to northwest Franz Josef Land. It is obstructed by ice most of the year. This sea is named after Queen Victoria. Russian Arctic explorer Valentin Akkuratov claimed that a branch of the Gulf Stream reached
East Siberian taiga quite warm for the northerly location. Precipitation is low, ranging from to , decreasing from east to west. The topography of this ecoregion is varied, consisting of wide, flat plains and areas of karst topography. In contrast to the neighbouring West Siberian taiga, large bogs and wetlands are conspicuously absent. Some trees also shed their leaves annually, a characteristic of deciduous forests. Vegetation consists mainly of vast, dense forests of Dahurian Larch ("Larix gmelinii"), with Siberian Larch ("Larix sibirica") and hybrid between the Dahurian and Siberian Larches ("Larix x czekanowskii") occurring as one moves to the west. Cranberry ("Vaccinium oxycoccus")