Marine+Life+-+Morgan


 * DO NOT INCLUDE WHALES, PENGUINS OR SEALS IN YOUR TOPIC. **

** What are the varieties of marine life found in the Antarctic waters? **
====** What special adaptations have these marine creatures made to survive in such extreme conditions? **==== ====** What adaptation have fish made that allow them to survive in the freezing waters without freezing themselves? **====

**‍ Do they have any predators and what are these? **
media type="youtube" key="B0WA3PIknCM" height="349" width="560" = = = = = Antarctica =

Antarctica the 5th largest continent in the world. Antarctica is an ice desert, drier, windier and colder than any other desert on earth. This frozen land is located at the south side of the earth or the bottom of the earth. Antarctica is not owned by any country or person, Antarctica, instead has different parts owned by different countries. The countries that own parts of Antarctica are: Australia, Norway, Britain, Argentina, France, New Zealand and Chilly. Australia owns the largest part of Anarctica and has set-up 3 reserch bases, Casey base, Davis base and Macarther base.

= Life in Antarctica = Many people consider that Antactica has no marine life at all, since the water is freezing cold. The marine life in Antarctica has a wide variety of fish. From krill to whales, small and large. Antarctica has some of the most fascinating marine life in the world. The aquatic life in Antarctica have amazing abilities, for example anti-freeze blood. For many years life has been in Antarctica since it was once a large and vast rainforest full of exotic life and extinct species of animals and fish.

=Phytoplankton=

Plankton are small plants or creatures that live in the sea. They play an important part of the food chain in Antarctica. Whales eat plankton and killer whales eat whales etc.
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Diatoms_through_the_microscope.jpg/300px-Diatoms_through_the_microscope.jpg width="427" height="308" align="left"]] || ===What are plankton?===

Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton,originated from the greek word phyton(plant) and planktos(free floating or drifting), are free floating plants that live in every part of the all the oceans in the world. Phytoplankton are the "plants" of the food chain, having all the life in antarctica as a predator. They are microscopic like all other plankton are. The plankton live for approximately 200-300 days.

The phytoplankton come in many forms and have been labelled, the most common form of phytoplankton are "Diatoms"(picture on the left). Diatoms are mostly unicellular and are a major group of algae that PRODUCE 80% OF THE WORLDS AIR!!!!Phytoplankton have been around since 65 million years ago in the planck epoch || = = =Sea Spiders= spiders, or arachnids, are not insects or animals and have 8 legs. Spiders are one of the main fears of humans because of their menacing appearances.
 * [[image:http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2012/05/sea-spider1-596x397.jpg width="424" height="324" link="url"]] || **What are spiders?**

Sea Spiders

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Sea spiders,pantopoda, are gigantic spiders that grow to about 30cm in diametre and live under the sea in antarctica. Sea spiders have 1300 recognised species. ======

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 The legs are are massive in comparison to the abdoman and body, most spiders have 8 moveable legs, but the sea spider have species that have 10 or 12 moveable legs. These spiders have no resperatory system due to their size and their muscles only have 1 cell surrounded by connective tissue. ======

 The spider is more similar to an insect and suck nutrients from soft bodied invertibrates to feed itself using a proboscis.
Sea spiders can be found 7000m under the sea. They range from size at 1mm to 10mm. || = = = = =Crocodile Ice Fish= Fish are cold blooded animals that breath in the water using gills and spend their whole lives in the sea
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Icefish_Chionodraco_hamatus.jpg/250px-Icefish_Chionodraco_hamatus.jpg width="430" height="333" link="url"]] || ===What are fish?===

Crocodile Ice Fish
Crocodile ice fish, channichthyidae or also known as "white-blooded" fish are found in the waters around South America and in the oceans around antarctica. They are carniverous and eat other fish, copepods and krill which are "soft" skinned animals. The fish's maximum weight is 2 kilograms. Their eyes cannot rotate but see 180 °. They live up to 4-5 years maximum and eat squid and krill and are omnivorous.

Ice fish blood is actually yellow because it contain no haemoglobin, they can live with it because of their low metabolic rates and high gathering of air in the sea. With no haemoglobin they have larger blood vessels than normal fish.

The lost haemoglobin was supposed to help the fish adapt in the cold weathers in the early Antarctic sea. ||

= = =Adaptations=

Fish in the antarctic can survive this type of water, this FREEZING water that has the lowest temperature of -1.9c °, most fish have anti-freeze in their blood which keeps their blood from freezing using a chemical reaction. Anti-freeze make blood in the ice fish species appear white. Penguins and other mammals are warm blooded, but the penguin species have a large layer of fat to help them keep warm and safe.

In the winter, the coldest time of Antarctica, some fish have strategies that are similar to hibernation to other animals, the fish lower their huntings to conserve energy and become less active.

Antarctica has a variety of marine animals that are predators to other marine life and make a well connected and balanced food web. The leopard seal and the killer whale are the top predators in the Antarctic food chain. Phytoplankton (plants) are at the bottom of the food chain. All the animals are predators to the phytoplankton because the phytoplankton are not carnivorous or herbivores because they grow using photosynthesis. The predators are all mainly carnivorous and are larger than they're prey.
 * [[image:Antarctic Food Chain.png width="374" height="446" align="left" caption="The Antarctic Food Chain"]] || =Antarctic Marine Predators=

It depends where the animal is, like on land or in the sea, on land birds rule the food chain in Antarctica. But in the ocean the larger fish are the predators e.g. killer whale.

The Leopard seal is one of the main predators in the antarctic killing penguins and other seals this animal is savage and will eat almost anything almost their size. The killer whale, larger and more deadly, is a famous whale and will eat most of the marine life in the world.

Leopard seals feed on penguins, crabeater seals and fish which keep them alive, but they will have to wait for a few months to eat penguins due to the penguin breeding seasons.

Killer whales are the kings of the antarctic sea. They eat penguins and seals and some times even they form a ring around a humpback whale and destroy it. || = =

=__Extinction__=

Many animals and marine animals are becoming extinct. Sea levels, over fishing, greenhouse, oil spills and ocean acidification are some of the causes that are making their numbers decrease. Green house(polution) was first, which created another problem, the oil spill and the rise in sea level because the green house is melting the ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic. These problems must be STOPPED or must occur less or the human world will be unbalanced and will fail.

The causes is affecting the life in antarctica, disrupting the food chain, penguins, whales and seals have been affected by the rise in water level and the increase of heat. Since the 1970's the krill population has fallen by 80%! The other animals will not have food if this continues and will not thrive and end up extinct.

The first signs that the life in antarctica was dying was when a couple of animals were becoming endangered on other countries. National Geographic have been monitoring the animals and marine life and have seen a MAJOR decrease of animals and marine life. Ocean acidification is slowly preventing phytoplankton from producing oxygen and will lead to the fall of man-kind.

=URL'S:=

2.Antarctica.ac.uk. 2013. //British Antarctic Survey - Homepages//. [online] Available at: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013].
==== 3.Coolantarctica.com. 2002. //How animals survive cold conditions//. [online] Available at: http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/cold_all_animals.php [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013]. ====

4.En.wikipedia.org. 1863. //Sea spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_spider [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013].
==== 5.Exploratorium: the museum of science, art and human perception. 2013. //Origins: Antarctica: Ideas: Antifreeze Fish (1) | Exploratorium//. [online] Available at: http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/antarctica/ideas/fish.html [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013]. ====

6.Library.thinkquest.org. 2000. //Life on Antarctica: Phytoplankton, krill, fish//. [online] Available at: http://library.thinkquest.org/26442/html/life/phyto.html [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013].
==== 7.Orma.com. 2010. //4 Antarctic Sea Animals That Are Just Plain Strange//. [online] Available at: http://www.orma.com/sea-life/4-antarctic-creatures-that-are-just-plain-strange/ [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013]. ====

Adam, D. 2005. //Ocean warming threatens Antarctic wildlife//. [online] Available at: 8.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/oct/19/frontpagenews.climatechange [Accessed: 28 Aug 2013].

=Books:= 1.Nicholson, J. 1995. // The cruellest place on earth //. Burwood, Vic.: Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind Education Centre. 2.Patrick, T. and Hutcheson, N. 2009. //Polar eyes//. Dickson, ACT: CSIRO Education. 3.Rootes, D. 1995. //Exploration into the polar regions//. New York: New Discovery.