The Arctic is all about ice and cold.
It's a vast icy continent torn by storms and blizzards, with aurora borealis illuminating
the sky.
It’s a world of frost, drift-ice, huge icebergs, and arctic deserts.
But wait, what about the jungle?
Don’t worry, I’ll get to that…..
If you get a chance to visit the arctic, you won’t see much other than ice, snow and
bare rocks for miles and miles.
In summer, there's a midnight sun that brings constant light, but not warmth: the temperature
doesn’t rise above 40 degrees.
During polar night, which lasts for half a year in winter, it's much worse: the temperature
dips below - 76 degrees.
That’s why the flora and fauna of the Arctic are poor.
It’s one of the least welcoming places for life on the whole planet.
And there are very few species who’ve managed to adapt to such harsh living conditions.
The only plants are mosses and lichen, and the only locals are polar bears, reindeer
and some species of birds.
Maybe the jungle is hidden beneath the ice then?
Well, you’re getting warmer.
To get into the jungle you’ll have to... dive deeper.
While Arctic land is too harsh, the coastal waters thrive with life.
There are dense forests of kelp, some of which reach a length of 49 ft.
In some places there are so many invertebrate creatures that you won’t even see the bottom.
They’re so various, it’s as if it were a tropical coral reef and not an icy ocean
near the Arctic coast.
Divers have found sponges of different shapes and colors here – sometimes as high as 6.5
ft.
The bottom is covered with thick velvet moss animals.
Sea pens, sea-squirts and horn corals grow in between.
Like trees and bushes in a land forest, these sea creatures attached to the bottom to serve
as a habitat for other animals.
They provide them with food and shelter where they can hide from enemies, or lay wait for
prey.
Sea cucumbers, scaleworms, maxillopods, sea stars, and fish have it easy in this luxurious
underwater kingdom.
And this is only a tiny part of the great variety of Arctic sea life.
The more biologists learn about the inhabitants of the northern polar seas, the more surprised
they are; they’ve developed innumerable mechanisms and strategies for survival in
harsh conditions.
In winter, the whole sea is covered with ice.
In summer, only about half of it melts.
This means not only everlasting cold, but also a lack of light, which is crucial for
all plants.
So here comes the main question: how on earth do they not freeze to death?
The water temperature here is between 28 and 50 degrees.
Salty water turns into ice at a lower temperature, so in some places it’s colder than ice itself!
Very few polar birds and mammals are capable of maintaining a high body temperature.
But most creatures living on the sea bottom are ectothermic, which means their temperature
totally depends on the temperature of their environment.
Icy water is their biggest problem.
There’s the danger that the fluid circulating in their bodies could freeze.
To prevent this, some fish and animals produce their own “antifreeze”.
This is made of special proteins, which interfere with icy crystals.
But the cold brings another discomfort too.
The lower the temperature, the slower the chemical processes are that make up metabolism.
And yet, sea creatures somehow manage to sustain life in their bodies.
Different animals have their own ways of doing this.
Scientists have found that some shellfish and other invertebrates have enzymes that
allow their chemical reactions to function in the cold more efficiently than their related
species from warmer waters.
But with all the tricks they use to survive, Arctic species have a much slower metabolism
than animals from warmer regions.
That’s why they don’t hurry anywhere: it helps them save energy.
You remember the sloth from “Zootopia”?
Well, now you know that he was that SLOW for a good reason.
Let’s come back to the Arctic species.
You wonder what they eat?
It’s not like there’s a buffet down there.
They mostly feed on plants and dead animal leftovers that fall from above.
But this food is only available for several weeks of the short Arctic summer.
When the sea freezes again, they get cut off from their main food source.
Sea species that can’t adapt to fasting and switch to eating bacteria have only one
way to survive.
They need to spend as little energy as possible.
This is done best when their metabolism is really slow.
Plus, this mode of conserving energy has another benefit for animals.
When the metabolism is slow, their bodies form less waste and toxins that they would
need to get rid of.
These are free radicals – very aggressive forms of oxygen that are formed in a body
during its life process.
They can damage or even destroy cells.
The colder the environment, and the slower the metabolism are, the fewer free radicals
appear.
Most invertebrate sea creatures in the midland don’t live longer than 10 years, but in
Arctic oceans, they reach a biblical age.
Biologists have found a moss animal that grows only 0.3 inch a year, but lives longer than
14 years.
Its close relative from the English Channel grows 5 times faster, but lives only 2 years.
The same is true of sea urchins.
Arctic species live up to 70 years, and the species from warmer seas – only 5-10 years.
Some sponges in the cold southern seas might live about 500 years!
You want to try living in water?
Well, colder than you could even imagine.
The Arctic jungle kelps don't only serve as food and habitat, they also change the environment,
hiding the light and softening the waves.
Sea ecologist, Karen Filbee Dexter, says that they help to protect the coastline, making
the waves weaker during storms and lessening the coastal erosion.
Global climate change also influences the underwater environment formed by the kelps.
In western Australia, southern Europe, northern California and the eastern US, kelps are disappearing
because of the climate getting warmer.
The waters in the Arctic get warmer 2-4 times quicker than in the rest of the world.
But here, unlike elsewhere, it might still be better for the kelps.
Ice is melting, though, which means that more light gets through the water to the bottom.
Genetic studies show that most of the kelps came from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic
8000 years ago, right after the latest ice age.
As a result, most Arctic kelps live in water with a lower temperature than what’s good
for them.
A warmer ocean would make ideal conditions for the maximum growth of kelps.
Scientific studies and experiments show that the change of climate can influence the arctic
coast strongly.
But the growth of kelps will create new shelters and habitats for fish and other sea creatures.
Kelps contribute to the ice melting in their own way.
It’s well known that dark snow melts faster than the white one: dark colors attract light,
and white reflects it.
When snow and ice get covered with kelps, they start melting faster.
As a result, the water gets warmer, which causes even more kelps to grow.
Kelps are also important for the economy.
They’re rich in ferrum, calcium and iodine, which makes them popular as a source of food.
The kelps extraction industry has been growing 7% each year.
Native tribes of the Arctic have always used kelps as a mineral supplement.
Now that they’re growing faster, they’ve become a source of income for them.
Kelps can be used for other purposes too – say, as fertilizer.
It works well because there aren’t any seeds of weeds or spores of pathogenic fungi in
them.
Cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, textiles – kelps are used everywhere as a natural and healthy
source of many useful ingredients.
There are other changes taking place in the Arctic.
The territory of ever-frozen land in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Norway and Siberia is getting
smaller by 1.5 ft a year.
The melting of permafrost and the destruction of the Arctic coast block the light, which,
in its turn, causes a reverse process that can stop the kelps from growing.
Scientists are still gathering the information they need about this region to predict the
future of the Arctic more definitively.
What do you think?
Do you know any other places with a harsh climate where life is thriving?
Let me know down in the comments!
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