The Arctic

The other day in class i found out I was going to be doing my major research paper on the biology of the Arctic ocean. In my opinion this is a great topic , as because of the extreme climatic conditions in this area certain marine fauna and flora are found here that are completely different (physiologicallt and behaviourally) than any other spot on earth. I decided to start my research by just learning a little more about the arctic in general, as I feel that to truly underdtand the biological organisms in this area it is important to understand the environmental conditions that restrain them and that they must adapt to in order to live in this area. The first notable fact I found was that the Arctic ocean is unique in that it borders three amin continents of Europe, Asia, and North America. No other oceans border these three industrial and economic powerhouses and thus I believe it it important to note this. Another important fact to note when studying the marine organisms of the arctic, is that even though the climate of the area is very extreme it still has a very narrow temperature range. This is because of the latitudal position of the arctic ocean, and thus because of the relatively stable climate that this area has, minor fluctuations can have a dramtic effect on the fauna and flora of the area as they are not heavilly adapted to varying temperatures (they are adapted to cold and extreme, but not a wide variation around this). Another important note is that many of the marine mammals of this area are endangered. This ties into what perturbations in the ecological system are impacting it (humans, exotic species, climatic change etc.) As well if marine mammals are at risk then what will the futur hold for samller organism such as fish etc. (think food chains and trophic levels). Lots of very charismatic species are endangered in the arctic including beluga whales, and walruses. The ecosystem of the arctic is fragile due to many factors including species low tolerance to temperatur variation as well as ph.

All in all for my major research paper, I intend to focus on the ecology of the arctic ocean marine life (primarily mammals), and look at how the chemistry of the oceans impacts these organisms over time (evolution). This will promote a change in the allele frequencies of individual populations of species towards either extinction or adaptation. We must find out what is happening to marine species of the arctic.

Links

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/xq.html