Some facts on Arctic fish adaptations to their environment

Arctic fishes have many physiological adaptations to help them cope with life in the cold environment of the arctic. The fats in their cell membranes are less saturated than those of southern fishes, a chemical exchange that is equivalent to replacing butter with olive oil – the latter remains more liquid when put in the fridge. This will thus allow fish in the arctic to be able to move much better then say if there cell membranes were more saturated with fats. The enzymes of arctic fishes also tend to be better able to carry out chemical reactions at low temperatures, which is another good example of an organism response to the ecological situation of living in the arctic. However, these cellular compensations are only partially effective. Arctic fishes have much slower metabolisms at 2ºC than southern fishes do at 20ºC. This is evident in the slow movements of many polar fishes, like sculpins, snailfishes, and eelpouts, which can be caught by hand, unlike their temperate counterparts. However, southern fish exposed to low temperatures have much lower metabolic rates than Arctic fish, which shows that although they are slower moving when placed into warmer waters they would actually be more active then temperate fish thus showing that their enzymes are allowing their metabolism to work much more effectively than their southern counterparts. Moreover, slow metabolic rates are not necessarily a disadvantage in cold environments. The slower you use energy means that less energy is required. Thus, arctic fish may benefit from their lethargic lifestyle as their lower energy requirements mean that they do not need as much food to survive and thus would be more adapted to food shortages. This is a great piece of information to know when it comes to the study of arctic biology which is my topic for the major research project in this course

Links

My physiology textbook and introductory biology textbook