...Organism Physiology Paper BIO101 April 15, 2014 Organism Physiology Paper The Sea Lion is the Organism that I want to discuss in this paper today. It has a highly controversial on weather this animal was a land walker only and when it actually acclimated to water, and why. After spending numerous hours researching this organism, it is still unclear to me when and why this animal changed its environment to include water. It is believed by many in the scientific world that the Sea Lion was a land dweller and became a water creature due to not have enough food in its land environment. “It's long been assumed that marine mammals in the pinniped group – seals, sea lions and walrus – evolved from a land-based common ancestor, but until now, no definitive fossil evidence had materialized” (Harmon, 2009). The animal would have had four legs that would have become webbed after its transfer to water. Its adaptation would have allowed it to survive under water for longer periods as well. The creature would have more than likely looked like the picture below if this is an accurate depiction of its ancestry. [pic] Its evolution would have included, being able to walk on land with paws that grip the earth, breathe air always to changing itself allowing it to breathe underwater and swim like a fish. Its paws slowly formed to fin like water movers however it still...
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...ARCTIC VOL. 59, NO. 3 (SEPTEMBER 2006) P. 261 – 275 Possible Effects of Climate Warming on Selected Populations of Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Canadian Arctic IAN STIRLING1 and CLAIRE L. PARKINSON2 (Received 10 November 2005; accepted in revised form 25 January 2006) ABSTRACT. Polar bears depend on sea ice for survival. Climate warming in the Arctic has caused significant declines in total cover and thickness of sea ice in the polar basin and progressively earlier breakup in some areas. Inuit hunters in the areas of four polar bear populations in the eastern Canadian Arctic (including Western Hudson Bay) have reported seeing more bears near settlements during the open-water period in recent years. In a fifth ecologically similar population, no changes have yet been reported by Inuit hunters. These observations, interpreted as evidence of increasing population size, have resulted in increases in hunting quotas. However, long-term data on the population size and body condition of polar bears in Western Hudson Bay, as well as population and harvest data from Baffin Bay, make it clear that those two populations at least are more likely to be declining, not increasing. While the ecological details vary in the regions occupied by the five different populations discussed in this paper, analysis of passive-microwave satellite imagery beginning in the late 1970s indicates that the sea ice is breaking up at progressively earlier dates, so that bears must fast for longer...
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...Paragraph 1: Misconceptions about Natural Selection One of the misconceptions about natural selection is that humans can’t negatively impact ecosystems, because species will just evolve what they need to survive. This is, perhaps, based on another misconception that natural selection can predict and supply what a species needs. This however is not true. Natural selection happens non-randomly in some individuals in a species who possess adaptive phenotypic traits that have a higher net reproductive success than individuals without these traits (Larry L Mai, 2005, 371). Natural selection can only occur for those adaptive traits that possess heritability. This means that if a population does not possess these genetic variations, evolution in response to environmental changes brought on by humans will not occur in the species. For example, climate changes i.e. global warming has had and is still having quite an adverse effect on the Arctic, causing the sea ice to decline drastically and thus having a negative impact on the ecosystem. Polar bears, whose main source of diet are seals, depend on the sea ice for their hunting methods, which is stalk seals at their breathing holes in the ice. Another animal negatively impacted by the disappearing sea ice are the Walrus. Walrus depend on floating pieces of sea ice to haul themselves out of the water. However, as the sea ice disappears some Walruses and walrus pups drown at sea. If the Polar Bear’s and Walrus’s lack the necessary genetic...
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...It is well known that the Arctic and Antarctic regions have harsh, cold winds, low temperatures and heavy snow fall, however, these environments are home to many species of birds and mammals which successfully survive and reproduce in spite of these extreme, seemingly uninhabitable conditions. They need special adaptations to help them survive and have many difficult obstacles to overcome including regulating and maintaining body temperature, coping with predation and with scarcity in food. The arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) is native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and inhabits the arctic tundra environments of Eurasia, North America and the alpine tundra of Fennoscandia. Within the worldwide population there are several hundred thousand individuals (The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2013). Populations vary in response to numbers in small mammals. They hunt lemmings, which are their main prey (Strand et. al., 1997), small birds and their eggs and also scavenge carcases in times where food is scarce (Hiruki and Stirling, 1989). Arctic foxes are relatively small mammals at around 3-8 kg. They have small ears, short noses, fur covering the pads on its feet. Its brush like tail aids in keeping its balance but is mostly used for insulation. During the winter arctic foxes have a thick white fur which provides camouflage against the white snowy expanse of the tundra and protection against the harsh environments, in the summer its coat becomes thinner and changes...
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...Polar Bears, the largest members of the Ursidae family, are bears that have transparent fur, which keeps them warm in icy and cold environments. They have large bodies, where male polar bears can weigh anywhere from 700 to 1,000 pounds, and female polar bears weighing anywhere from 300 to 700 pounds. While standing upright, they typically measure around 10 feet tall. Lengthwise, they measure around 7 to 8 feet long. The average lifespan of most polar bears ranges from 20 to 25 years. While they do appear as harmless majestic creatures, they are actually some of the most vicious hunters and carnivores out there. Furthermore, Polar bears have strong large legs with some webbing on their feet, making it easier to walk on ice as well as swim. Their wide paws help distribute their weight while walking, which prevents them from breaking any ice they walk on. Contrary to popular belief, polar bears are not white. Their skin is actually black, and they have a layer of fat that can be up to 5 inches thick to keep them warm. Their fur is actually transparent, and appears white due to the reflection of the snow and icy environments they live in. Polar bears can have unpredictable behaviors, as they spend most of their time alone, except when mating. However, when it comes to communicating with one another, polar bears wag their heads to one another, signifying playful behavior. Also, when a polar bear growls or roars loudly, that is usually a sign of anger. Moreover, Polar bears genus is...
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...Imagine you are a polar bear, and you want to get to shore, but you can't because it's too long of a swim, because the ice caps at the shore have melted and the ice caps you are on our floating further and further away becauses of greenhouse gas effects on the environment. Therefore you can't get home, you can't get food, and you can't survive. The polar bear was added to the endangered animal list in 2008 because of multiple causes, most are from impacts caused by greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases in Alaska and Northern Canada have three major Impacts on polar bears and their ecosystem: Greenhouse gases cause pollution in the ecosystem. They cause climate change in the ecosystem, melting the ice caps the polar bears live on, and lastly the greenhouse gases cause shorter hunting seasons, less food for the polar bears, and bad body conditions for polar bears, causing the polar bear population to go down. Greenhouse gases make the ecosystems atmosphere very polluted and cause many bad effects. Steven Amstrup a senior researcher with the US Geological Survey and the Montana-based conservation group Polar Bears International, says "Indeed, if greenhouse gas emissions were mitigated, that substantially more sea ice could be retained,"(J Berman 2010). Greenhouse gases spread across the polar bears habitat causing a variety of problems, in Alaska and Northern Canada. The gases spread along the coasts and are going over the ocean causing problems for fish and killing fish, which...
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...The animal that I chose for the endangered species project is a polar bear. These beautiful mammals have a pigment-free, transparent coat that is about 2.5 to 5 cm think. It is composed of a dense, protective undercoat that is covered with different lengths of guard hairs. The polar bear’s fur appears to be white, yellow, and sometimes brown, because each of the hair shafts, which cover its coat are un-pigment, transparent, and have a hollow core that reflects and scatters visible light. Also, underneath all of the fur they have black skin, however it only visible on it’s nose and footpads. The black skin enables the bear to absorb sunlight, so that it can stay warm. Unlike many of its relatives, polar bears have lengthier heads and necks, and their body shaped is more slender. These bears are the largest carnivores that live on land. An adult male can weigh about 775 to 1,200 pounds, and a full-grown female can typically weigh around 330 to 650 pounds. Polar bears have many characteristics that help them to survive in such a cold environment. Their paws are thickly coated with fur, for warmth, and the pads on the bottom of their feet are rough, and provide them with more traction, when they are travelling along the ice. These animals are excellent swimmers; they are capable of swimming very long distances. There front feet propel them through the water in a doggy paddling manner, and their hind legs, and paws are used as rudders, and are held flat while they are in the water...
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...Management Intervention For Polar Bears The affect climate change has on polar bears has been a hot topic for the past 10-15 years, and for good reason. Global warming has been causing ice to melt at an alarming rate, from 1979 to 2009 the amount of perennial sea ice in the artic has declined at an average rate of 11.3% per a decade (Hunter). In 2008, Polar bears were even listed as a threatened species in the U.S. Endangered Species Act. This decrease in ice has caused a substantial decrease in population growth for Polar Bears. In 2001 when there were only 90 days where the mean ice concentration was less than a threshold of 50% and the growth rate (lambda) was 1.059 but in 2005 when there were 134 days with less than 50% ice the growth rate was .799, which is a declining population (Hunter). As days with less ice go up, the growth rate of polar bears is going down. Polar bears typically live long lives with females growing to be as old as 32 and males as old as 28 (Hunter). Females reach reproductive maturity in their fourth or fifth year and give birth in their fifth or sixth year to 1-3 cubs. Cubs remain dependent on their mothers from birth until the spring of their second year (Stirling). Polar bears depend on ice for feeding, breeding, and movement. In the beginning of winter a female will dig a den and begin gestation, coming out of their den in early spring with their cub(s). If a mother is able to replenish her fat reserves that she lives off of while denning she...
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...Classification Key: Kingdom Animalia- eukaryote, mulitcellular, and hetero Phylum Chordata- animal with dorsal hollow nerve cord; notochord- gill slits paired muscles Subphylum Vertebrata- backbone chordates jawless fishes Class Mammalia – with keratin hair, live birth, feed young milk from mammary glands. 1a) Not mammals go to 2 1b) mammals go to 9 2a) keratin scales C. Reptilia go to 3 Order Chelonia : sea turtle( with waterproof keratin scales & eggs) 2b) keratin feathers C. Aves got to 5 ( birds with keratin feather beaks and lay eggs) 3a) has shell go to 4 3b) no shell O. Squamata end ( reptile: sea snakes & Marine iguanas) 4a) shell O. Crocodilia end –( salt water crocodile) 5a) Can not fly O. Sphenisiciformes end (penguins have stubby flippers that allow them to fly underwater) 5b) can fly got to 6 6a) duck beak 0. Anseriformes end (duck) 6b) not a duck go to 7 7a) Pouch beak 0. Pelicaniformes end ( have a unique pouch below their beaks) 7b) not pouch go to 8 8a) funnel beak o. Porcellariformes end ( tube like nostrils and heavy beaks curved at the tip- Tubenoses) 8b) not a funnel end O. Charadriiformes end ( great black backed and bottom white long bill- EX. Gull related birds.) 9a) 4 appendages go to 10 9b) 2 appendages go to 14 10a) No flippers 0. Carnivora go to 11 (sea otters,weasels….skunks- molars slice like scissors) 10b) flippers go to 12 0. Pinnipedia (have flippers) 11a) bears F. Ursidae end 11b) otter F. Musteiidae end 12a)...
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...The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a carnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is a large bear, approximately the same size as the omnivorous Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi).[3] A boar (adult male) weighs around 350–700 kg (770–1,540 lb),[4] while a sow (adult female) is about half that size. Although it is the sister species of the brown bear,[5] it has evolved to occupy a narrower ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals which make up most of its diet.[6] Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time at sea. Their scientific name means "maritime bear", and derives from this fact. Polar bears hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice, often living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present. The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with eight of the nineteen polar bear subpopulations in decline.[7] For decades, large scale hunting raised international concern for the future of the species but populations rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect.[citation needed] For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic indigenous peoples, and polar bears remain important in their...
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...The Tragedy of Polar Bears Polar bears in the Arctic are tremendously affected by pollution now. As global warming progresses, wind and water currents carry pollutants, most of which come from industrial sources in different parts of the world, and cause them to travel to the Arctic because of the ‘conveyor belt’ nature of the atmosphere and ocean (Yarim 2013). These chemicals accumulate in the fat of many animals, mainly through the food chain, which are then eaten by top predators such as polar bears. Thus, polar bears inevitably have severe health problems and risk death. When consumed at high levels, the pollutants can have a dramatic and potentially fatal impact, which affects the polar bear population in the Arctic severely. The most prevalent chemicals found in the Arctic are “Persistent Organic pollutants (POPs)”, such as the pesticide DDT, the industrial chemical polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which can biomagnify up the food chain. Other pollutants may include acid rain, heavy metals and radioactive isotopes (Yarim 2013). According to studies, bears with high levels of some POPs have low levels of vitamin A, thyroid hormones, and some antibodies (WWF Global 2009). The pollutants load of polar bears in the Arctic are negatively affecting the immune system, hormone regulation, growth patterns, reproduction, and survival rates of polar bears. The studies have suggested that the immune system is weaker in some polar bears with higher levels of PCBs. A weakened...
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...Ice Fishing Tips Mapping your catch February and March offer productive ice fishing days. Because of fluctuating conditions, check the ice for safety. Large, shallower bodies of water are favorable for sunfish, northern pike, and yellow perch. Northern pike, walleye, and lake trout dwell in deepwater lakes. Brown trout, rainbow trout, and landlocked salmon migrate to deep lakes with cool summertime temperatures. Tackling the ice Avoid the ice until it's three or four inches thick. Ice can measure an inch thick in one part of the lake and a foot thick at another. Ice is often weak and hazardous at shorelines. A hand-powered ice auger cuts through up to 12 inches of ice. More extreme conditions require a gas-powered auger. Anglers fishing for sunfish and yellow perch lean toward lightweight four- to six-inch augers. Lake trout and salmon often require a larger hole. However, an eight-inch hole requires removing almost twice the ice of a six-inch hole. A fishing we will go Jigging is done with a jigging rod or hand line and a lure that is baited. The jig dashes about when jerked by the angler. A teardrop jig hangs vertically in the water. Crappies and perch often prefer a horizontal jig. The most common jig movement is up and down. In shallower water, the jig can also be moved around the hole. The jig can go into a light spin by twisting the line between the fingers. Perch and bluegill feed within a few inches from the lake bottom, where water is warmer. Bouncing bait off...
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... As many may know, penguins in the Antarctic contain a rough life. In between November and February, every 251 Adélie breeding colonies line their nests with pebbles to prepare for their two eggs that they are about to lay. They make their nests slightly higher than the surrounding ground, therefore when the temperature ascends, causing the snow to melt, their breeding grounds do not flood. The male and female parent take equal duties caring for their eggs and chicks. These duties include protecting their egg or young from skuas, as well as feeding their chick regurgitated krill. After two months, the chicks become independent. Fully grown, this two foot three, eleven pounded bird, embrace their black backs and a white front, creating a tuxedo effect in addition to a white ring around each of their eyes. The Adélies tend to cover their colonies in feces, therefore any colony would be very loud and smelly. While out at sea these birds can swim up to seventy-two kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, these prodigious birds are decreasing in numbers due to global warming. Unlike the Adélie, the emperor penguins lay their 1.1 pound egg in the harshest of the weather, between April and December. Similar any other penguin, the skuas prey on the penguins eggs and young. Due to the yellow feathers among the bird's neck, the emperor can be considered the most colorful above all penguins. Approximately, 80 to 90% of their feathers help with insulation from the frigid temperatures. With the...
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...You’ve probably heard about the cute, white polar bears living up in the north. However, one thing you may or may not know is that because of the high demand of polar bear fur, their meat being one of the main sources of food for the native people of the north, and tourist not being careful when visiting polar bear habitats, the polar bear population in Canada has started to decline at a rate which may cause them to become endangered and then extinct in the near future. Now with polar bears being the main predators in the North Pole and the largest land predators in the world, a threat to the polar bear population is a very big deal and would have a big impact on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems up in the northern regions. Polar bears mostly live in the Arctic Circle and are very important animals to ecosystems in that area. The ecological niche of a polar bear “is to decrease and maintain the population of seals (their main meal). They are omnivores so therefore eat a variety of animals and a limited amount of vegetables. Polar bears rarely enter in a conflict with other predators such as brown bears, since their habitats are so far apart.” (Copied as it is from https://prezi.com/tyxt6p5q7luz/facts-about-polar-bears-and-what-would-happen-if-they-went-extint/). However, with about two thirds of the polar bear population living in Canada and around 600 legally hunted there each year, there is a high chance of the polar bears in Canada to go extinct. “‘We harvest more polar...
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...Have you ever wondered what it's like to survive in the freezing cold? Well the Arctic Fox or Alopex lagopus knows exactly what it's like. This fluffy animal belongs to the family Mammalia and is a little bit bigger than a regular house cat. This animal lives in the Arctic Tundra. WIth the seasonal colored fur, this animal can blend in with its natural terrain easily. The arctic fox is a very fascinating creature with lots of things about it to learn. Wild animals have to have certain structural or physical body parts to help them survive in the wild. All animals have certain structures important to survive. The Arctic Fox has evolved to have evolved with specific structures to help them survive in the toughest of snow storms or the warmest...
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