Guest Blogger - Which animals will be most affected by ice loss? Are they in danger of extinction?
Good question! I would say the animals that are ice dependent:))))). These include animals such as leopard seals or weddell seals that reproduce on the ice but also animals that live always in the water. For example, the Antarctic krill /Euphausia superba /(i.e. a shrimp) really likes to live under the ice, particularly in the winter, where it feeds loads on algae. As ice melts, the algae will be less and consequently they might get affected. Another example are penguins. We know that the populations of Emperor penguins are related to winter sea ice; if there is not much sea ice, the emperor penguins might be in trouble too.
Finally, there are animals in the Antarctic that do not cope well with changes in temperature. Marine species that live on the shores of Antarctica, like certain species of sea urchins, do not cope well with increasing water temperature and might be in danger of extinction if water temperature rise significantly. However, other species seem to be minimally affected...
José
José Xavier PhD
Institute of Marine Research
Department of Zoology
University of Coimbra, Portugal
&
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
Gentoo penguins
Krill
Comments
Re:
That's really interesting. Would we be affected? If so how?
Ice Loss
Based on this information, wouldn't other species (not in arctic climates) be affected by the loss of ice? Would it not cause a chain reaction down throughout the food web? I was just thinking about all of the implications of any change in climate in any location... how it would drastically change things elsewhere in the process... how every little thing is intertwined on our wonderful planet... I'm hoping that others catch on to how much everything is connected and how much everything matters.
Re: Ice Loss
I agree with Lindsey. Many other things would be affected if the ice continued melting at the same rate your talking about.
Re: Ice Loss
Yes I agree, if one link was to go missing in a food web it could possibly cause a devastating chain reaction, which would effect a wide variety of different species.
Re: Ice Loss
Yeah I agree with all of the above,because if one thing goes it starts a chain reaction in which it seems to drag everything around it down with it. All of which do the same.By the way cool Krill.
Interesting
This is really interesting,and the pictures are very cool. Is it possible there could be a chain reaction if those certain types of sea urchins became extinct? If so how would it affect humans?
Question
You said at the end of your second paragraph that other species are minimally affected, but what happens to the Snow Petrels and Antarctic Skua that will not have a place to rest when the snow melts? They can fly for great distances but where will they land? If they fly to a different continent to try to adapt, won't they die?
funny looking krill...
as i was looking at the pictures under your blog i noticed that the krill have humongous eyes. why is that? i thought small marine animals have small eyes...