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How is Antarctica an extreme environment?
Everything about Antarctica is extreme. South Pole winter temperatures average around minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and coastal winds can reach 200 miles an hour, powering violent blizzards that last a week at a time. Meteorologists correlate global weather patterns with the annual freezing of Antarctica’s oceans.
Why is Antarctica an extreme place?
Magical, surreal and otherworldly, Antarctica is a land of ultimates. As the southernmost continent, it is the coldest and windiest place on earth. And with virtually no rain and more than 95 percent of the landmass covered in ice, Antarctica is the world’s largest desert.
Why is Antarctica a special environment?
Antarctica is important for science because of its profound effect on the Earth’s climate and ocean systems. Locked in its four kilometre-thick ice sheet is a unique record of what our planet’s climate was like over the past one million years. However, Antarctica is fragile and increasingly vulnerable.
What type of environment is Antarctica and why?
Antarctica is a desert. It does not rain or snow a lot there. When it snows, the snow does not melt and builds up over many years to make large, thick sheets of ice, called ice sheets. Antarctica is made up of lots of ice in the form of glaciers, ice shelves and icebergs.
How do Antarctic animals adapt to their environment?
Physical adaptations are sometimes the easiest to spot. Many of the animals living in Antarctica have outer layers of dense fur or water-repellent feathers. Under this fur or feather layer is a thick layer of insulating fat. This adaptation helps predators stay hidden from prey and prey stay hidden from predators.
How much of the world’s fresh water does Antarctica contain?
70 percent
The present Antarctic ice sheet accounts for 90 percent of Earth’s total ice volume and 70 percent of its fresh water.
What is the environment in Antarctica?
Climate. Antarctica is a frozen desert with little precipitation; the South Pole itself receives less than 4 inches (10cm) per year, on average. Temperatures reach a minimum of between -112F (-80C) and -130F (-90C) in the interior in winter and reach a maximum of between 41F (5C) and 59F (15C) near the coast in summer.
Is Antarctica a perfect place to study environment?
Answer: Antarctica, because of its simple ecosystem and lack of biodiversity, is the perfect place to study how little changes in the environment can have big repercussions. The single-celled plants, phytoplanktons, are the grasses that nourish and sustain the entire Southern Ocean’s food chain.
What are the environmental issues in Antarctica?
Environmental impacts in Antarctica occur at a range of spatial scales. At the largest scale are the effects in Antarctica of planet-wide impacts such as global warming, ozone depletion and global contamination caused by the application of technology elsewhere in the world.
What are the major issues in Antarctica?
1 – Climate change/Global warming,resulting in a warming of the sea and loss of sea ice and land-based ice,this is greatest long-term threat to the region.
What organisms live in Antarctica?
Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, and certain animals, such as mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades.
What is the ecosystem in Antarctica?
An ecosystem is an interacting system made up of animals, plants, microorganisms and the physical and chemical environment they live in. Antarctica has marine ecosystems and terrestrial (land-based) ecosystems. Ecosystems rely on food webs – where energy and nutrients are passed from one living thing to another. New Zealand ecosystem research