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How global warming affects the ocean
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The Gloomy Arctic In winter, the sun never rises in the arctic because light rays are bent by the atmosphere, however the sun can be seen only when it is below the horizon. Imagine how it would be like without sunlight for 6 straight months during midwinter as shown in the picture below on the last page; it’s breathtaking. The reason it is because the earth’s rotate to the plane of its orbit around the sun. In summer time, there are 24 hours sunlight a day, which is usually called “the midnight sun” that causes the icebergs/sea ice to melt due to global warming and causing havoc. Although the temperatures there are at the lowest of -50% in the higher latitude until then with the global warming, temperatures has increased. Global warming in the arctic is being affected by the changing …show more content…
Ice is one of the major abiotic factor in the arctic, without the ice, many organism such as polar bears would be left without a place to live and even with seals, it would be unsafe for them because without ice, there will be no places to hide from predators. Other factors are permafrost, strong winds, poor soil, long winters and short summer. Biotic factors of the arctic are also included as living things that affects the organism as well as it almost similar to the Texas’s wetland biotic factor. Although the animals consuming the organism and organism that are consumed. The Difference between San Antonio The Arctic Global warming- droughts, flooding Global Warming- Arctic temp. Increasing, ice melting. High temp, gets really hot during summer and cold during winter sometime warm 24 hour sunlight Short summer, long winter Different habitat Different habitat Wildlife animals Marine mammals/wild life animals 5 type of wetlands Sunlight is at the horizon Similar biotic factor Similar biotic
The Arctic region is home to a variety of valuable animals and plants, including polar bear, seal, and so on. The ecosystem of the Arctic region is fragile because these animals are evolved to live in extreme conditions. With the climate change, many animals are endangered. Ice is the habitat of polar animals because they have to rely on sea ices for resting, food, and reproduction. With the climate change and the decrease of sea ice, the number of polar animals is decreasing and their health is threatened. For example, the average weight of female polar bears in 1980 was about 650 pounds, but the number reduced to about 500 pounds in 2004 (Djoghlaf 15). The earlier breakup and later condensation of sea ice shortens the hunting season of polar bears. Polar bears mainly feed on seals that indwell icy land. The melting ice reduces the number of seals and food intake of polar bears. In addition, polar bears are used to living in ice caves. The rising temperature causes the collapse of ice caves, which can kill baby bears. The climate change is negatively affecting the biodiversity in the region and will definitely harm the ecosystem
The planet we live in, the earth is a tiny composition in this huge universe. It has diversities ranging from highly variant temperature and pressure belts as well as various ecosystem types. One such remarkable feature of the earth is the polar ice caps. There are three major prominent features, the Antarctic ice on the South Pole, the Arctic ice on the North Pole and Greenland on the north between North America and Europe. Antarctica consist about 90 percent of the world's ice (and 70 percent of its fresh water). It is covered with ice an average of 2,133 meters (7,000 feet) thick. If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet). The Arctic ice is not so thick in comparison and it mostly floats in the Arctic Ocean. Greenland, on the other hand would add another 7 meters (20 feet) to the oceans if it melted because Greenland is closer to the equator than Antarctica, the temperatures there are higher, so the ice is more likely to melt. Scientists from the Universities of London and Edinburgh say that ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland together contribute approximately 12 percent of the rise in sea levels. The melting of these enormous ice bodies can significantly impact the global changes in climate and reversely, this climate changes also impact the melting of the ice bodies. It is a two way process and the causes are mostly anthropogenic.
The Tundra suffers a very harsh climate. Because of this fact most of the area
Winters can get severely into freezing temperatures. During the winter months December, January, and February, snow a...
Polar ice is sea ice created from the freezing of sea water, ice sheets and glaciers. These in turn are formed from the build up and compaction of fallen snow. Both the ice sheets and glaciers cover vast areas of the Polar Regions. This polar ice is hugely important to our globe and takes up a large part of it. Global sea-ice coverage averages about 25 million kilometers square; this is the area of the entire North America continent. The ice sheets, which cover the land, with the glaciers cover about 15 million kilometers square; this is almost 10% of the Earth’s land area, with the majority on Antarctica (Earthobservatory.nasa.gov, 2013).
The world has been warming up including the arctic since the 1950s (Hudson and Henry 2009; Mcguire et al. 2009).This concept is widely known as climate change or global warming. The increase in temperature on the earth surface and atmosphere has been a by-product of man’s industrialization and an insatiable need for energy (Smith 2008). A once contentious issue has now been put to rest furthermore there is the newly found supposition among the public that in fact climate change is a real and threatening problem (Smith 2008). The arctic’s warming affects a cross spectrum of environmental and biological systems that might not be irreversible and have the potential to cause precipitous changes in the earth structure (Mcguire et al. 2009). It is widely known that the low temperature in the arctic is one of the key factors that limit the growth of plant directly or indirectly (Post and Pedersen 2008). Temperatures directly affect plant growth by restricting the degree of tissue respiration and nutrient uptake (Brooker and Van der wal 2003) and indirectly by decelerating down the rate of decomposition (Chapin and Shaver 2002). The additional presence of CO2 is expected to increase plant biomass (Brouder and Volenec 2008). The interactive factors of Temperature, soil nutrients, CO2 availability and precipitation are the key factors for the growth of plants (Post and Perdersen 2008). The arctic is an excellent environment to carry out experimental studies on plants because of notable changes that can be noticed in plant structure or mass because of a change in temperature (Mcguire et al. 2009). There is a wide consensus among a number of scientists working in the arctic t...
Polar bears don't just live on ice, they use the ice as an advantage to catch prey such as seals. Polar bears have adapted to living on ice and being able to withstand the cold weather. Now that the climate is changing at a fast pace, polar bears are losing their land because its melting, leaving them with no place to walk, sleep and taking away their way of hunting prey. (polar bears international, 2015) This is all happening so fast that there is no way polar bears will be able to adapt to the new environments, causing extinction. The arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world is due to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, making it a problem happening very rapidly. (Bagley, 2015) Temperatures in the Arctic region have risen 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the last half century. (Bagley, 2015) Population among polar bears has decreased up to 40% in some areas. (Bagley, 2015) With the climate getting warmer, ice is melting earlier every spring, and takes longer to freeze every winter which is disrupting the feeding and breeding cycles of many different arctic species. (Bagley, 2015) Polar bears have adapted ways to survive in the cold harsh arctic environment including having the ability to cool down their outer skin to keep their vital organs warm when they are submerged in cold water. Though this may help the delay of hypothermia as they have to swim greater distances from ice shelf to ice shelf, that doesn't mean polar bears can swim forever. (Bagley, 2015) One bear that a scientist studied swam 500 miles over nine days, but lost 22% of her body weight, and lost her cub.(Bagley, 2015) Many different scientists have been studying the behaviour of the polar bear to see if it could adapt in any way to survive. Eight U.S scientists made a hypothesis consisting that polar bears could lower their metabolic rates enough to survive as food
The Arctic was about sleep and if we do not get enough sleep we tend to eat more. The arctic stars by talking about how sleep is hard to get because you can not tell your mind to sleep, it is not that simple. It talks about how if a person walks up at a center time, because of a phone call from work about something important falling, the person is more likely to wake up again the next night. The cycle of waking up at that time counts to the next day, the person is huger and still tired. This cycle continues and the person now trying to read a book to get their mind off the job and relax to get a better sleep, but they still wake up in the middle of the night. The arctic then goes on to take about how most people do not get a good night sleep. It then tells us that taking naps are the best way to get more sleep.
Various glaciers in Alaska and other parts of the United States have shrunk dramatically. If temperatures continue to rise, the ice will continue to melt, and some glaciers could disappear completely, which causes sea levels to rise. There are many animals, birds, and seafood that depend solely on glaciers for survival. With an increase in sea water temperature, and increasing sea levels, sea-plants that these fish thrive on will be lost, lowering the number of seafood, which in-turn will make survival of many species difficult. The arctic is source region for cold ocean currents and with no ice it will have no density and temperature distinctions, which pushes the ocean currents. If the ocean current heat transfer mechanism powers down,
The effects of global warming on earth's ecosystems are expected to deepen. The rise in temperature had made the life very difficult for many animal and plant species. Some common warning signs can be seen today. A recent study shows that changes due to global warming compel many animal species to migrate at a higher altitude. Some polar bears in arctic side are drowning because they have to swim longer distances to reach ice floes. In California, shoreline, sea life is moving towards north, as a result of warm water and change in
The role the Polar bear plays in its habitat is a huge one by being a keystone species where by the rest of the subsequent food chain rely on the polar bear to survive especially the lesser carnivores such as artic foxes and wolverines. They also keep down seal populations, especially Arctic permeant species such as the Ringed seal. By hunting on sea ice the polar hunts for the cubs of the seals by breaking into warrens located under the ice, if lucky the polar may catch the adult seal which would be a larger meal. If the not all the meat is eaten then scavengers then feed on the rest, thus giving
The Arctic tundra, a vast plain of ice and water, is located on the northern poles of the Earth. Characterized by its low precipitation, minimum sunlight, and a layer of permafrost- a thick layer of ice that never thaws away- this biome is very cold, with temperatures as low as negative 70oC. One specific population that has adapted to this harsh environment is the polar bears.
The warming of the Earth is destroying our ecosystem. Our ecosystem is being affected. The changes in the climate are and will continue to affect all species, humans and animals. Many animals will become extinct because of this. In an article written about the ecosystem by Peter Fashing, said “Several species, including the arctic fox and Thayer’s gull, rely on scavenging the remains of seals killed by polar bears as an important component of their diet. If polar bears become extinct, these species also may follow them into extinction. In fact, the loss of polar bears and the climate change that is behind this loss are, unfortunately, likely to ultimately result in the collapse of the entire arctic ecosystem as we know it today.” (Fashing, 2009)
Arctic tundra is located in the northern hemisphere, encircling the North Pole and extending south to the Coniferous forests of the Taiga. The arctic is known for its cold, desert-like conditions. The growing season ranges from 50 to 60 days. The average winter temperature is -34° C (-30° F), but the average summer temperature is 3-12° C (37-54° F), which enables this biome to sustain life. Rainfall may vary in different regions of the arctic. Yearly precipitation, including mel...
We all know that the tilt of the Earth accounts for the seasons, but many folks don’t know that the tilt, or obliquity, of the Earth has changed over time. During a period of 41,000 years, the tilt of the Earth’s axis changes from 22.1° to 24.6°. This wobble, like other facets of the Milankovitch Cycles, is caused by gravitational interactions with other planets.