Living organisms living in the Arctic, have a hard time.Very cold climate, eternal ice, snow and polar night for 5-6 months year - the main features of the harsh climate in the polar and sub-Arctic region.The organic world of the Arctic Ocean was formed in these difficult conditions.In many ways the high latitudes of the ecosystem is different from temperate and tropical regions of the World Ocean (IO).Highlight and briefly describe these features.
Harsh natural conditions of the Arctic
snow and frost prevail above the Arctic Circle, the organic world adapts to these features of nature.A significant part of the Arctic region of the world occupy the cold expanses of water, dressed in ice.In the different countries in the course of the following place names: the Arctic, Polar or Arctic Ocean.Summer in the high latitudes of the short and cool, winters long and severe.Precipitation falls as snow, the total number is small - only about 200 ml.
organic world of the Arctic Ocean - is living beings that inhabit the bottom, the coast and the many islands of the Arctic seas.Many animals and some small plants adapted to low temperatures on snow and ice.How are these hardy inhabitants of such a severe edge?Birds and mammals that live at high latitudes, usually white.
organic world of the Arctic Ocean (briefly)
all the diversity of life at the bottom represented benthos.This algae, molluscs, coelenterates attached to the substrate of the shelf and continental slope, crawling crustaceans.From algae dominated laminaria and focus.Flowering plants eelgrass is found in the White Sea.Benthic animals are mainly related to invertebrates (worms, sponges, sea anemones, and the stars, clams, crabs).They can withstand the rigors of the cold and the dark depths of the sea.
Of the nearly 200 species of phytoplankton, most related to diatoms.
Lean flora on the sea shore and numerous archipelagos represented gymnosperms, flowering and lichens.Food chains include zooplankton, marine invertebrates, fish, birds, mammals.The latter two groups mainly inhabit the coast and islands, food for themselves more often found in ice-free water.For the world of birds in the Arctic is characterized by species richness, and noisy "rookeries" diversify the organic world of the Arctic Ocean.
list of animals in the Arctic
Invertebrates: Jellyfish cyan, Ophiuroidea "Gorgon's head", mussels and crustaceans.
Among fish large size stands Greenland Shark.Other members of fish fauna: salmon, herring, cod, perch, flatfish (including Paltusova).Birds: ptarmigan, guillemot, snowy owl, terns, bald eagle.
Mammals:
- toothed whales (beluga, orca, narwhal);
- seals (harp, striped, ringed seal, hooded seals);
- walruses,
- white or polar bear;
- reindeer (caribou),
- arctic wolf;
- musk ox;
- arctic hare;
- lemming.
Adaptations plants and animals of the Arctic
organic world of the Arctic Ocean on a variety of phytoplankton almost as northern areas of the Atlantic and the Pacific.Interestingly, some microscopic algae retain the ability to photosynthesize even on the ice.As a result, white surface is covered greenish-brown film, and the ice melts rapidly.Moderately cold water rich in dissolved oxygen, and nitrogen, while lowering a heavy top layer rises from a depth of phytoplankton necessary trace elements.These features create favorable conditions for rapid development of microscopic organisms.
peculiar emblem, the symbol of which recognize the organic world of the Arctic Ocean - the polar bear.This is one of the largest land-based predators;the body of an adult male reaches a length of 2-3 meters.It feeds mainly on seals and fish.Polar bear and other Arctic animals have the ability to lower the metabolism at low temperatures.They grow slowly, but can reach a huge size and old age.For example, a tropical sea urchins rarely lived 10 years, the polar species may exist more than 60 years.
climatic conditions a little softer in the seas of the European part of the Arctic, so the flora and fauna are richer.Most of the population are the shallow continental shelf.But on the whole plant and the organic world is poor views.Among the main reasons - the harsh climatic conditions, lack of sunlight and heat plants, lack of food for the animals.
Summary of the Arctic Ocean
smallest and coldest part of the oceans takes only 4% of its total area.The Arctic Ocean is almost in the center of the Arctic.The border region is a conventional line - the Arctic Circle (66 ° N parallel. M.).The Arctic includes not only the water spaces, but also the island, the coast of continents.The rivers of the Arctic Ocean - one of the most full-flowing in the world.Flows into the Arctic seas: the Yenisey, Lena, Ob, Pechora, Yana, Kolyma, Indigirka.The narrow Bering Strait separates the polar waters of the Pacific.The border with the Atlantic runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula and the south of Greenland.On the territory of the Arctic to North geographic pole.
