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Polar seas is a collective term for the Arctic Ocean (about 4-5 percent of Earth's oceans) and the southern part of the Southern Ocean (south of Antarctic Convergence, about 10 percent of Earth's oceans). In the coldest years, sea ice can cover around 13 percent of the Earth's total surface at its maximum, but out of phase in the two hemispheres.
Sea ice algae play a critical role in primary production and serve as part of the base of the polar food web by converting carbon dioxide and inorganic nutrients to oxygen and organic matter through photosynthesis in the upper ocean of both the Arctic and Antarctic. Within the Arctic, estimates of the contribution of sea ice algae to total ...
Although polar bears spend most of their time on the ice rather than in the water, polar bears show the beginnings of aquatic adaptation to swimming (high levels of body fat and nostrils that are able to close), diving, and thermoregulation. Distinctly polar bear fossils can be dated to about 100,000 years ago.
Much of the Arctic Ocean is covered by sea ice that varies in extent and thickness seasonally. The mean extent of the Arctic sea ice has been continuously decreasing in the last decades, declining at a rate of currently 12.85% per decade since 1980 from the average winter value of 15,600,000 km 2 (6,023,200 sq mi). [48]
Slow moving sea spiders are common, sometimes growing up to about 35 cm (1 ft) in leg span (another example of Polar gigantism). [48] Roughly 20% of the sea spider species in the world are from Antarctic waters. [49] They feed on the corals, sponges, and bryozoans that litter the seabed. [6]
The first sea ice-free September could occur as early as the 2030s, the study found. Arctic sea ice has been declining for decades but has shrunk at an even faster rate in the past 20 years.
Residents of Chicago, Illinois, are enduring frigid temperatures as the polar vortex continues to sweep over the Midwest.Eric Gaydos filmed footage of what appeared to be steam or smoke rolling ...
Polar ecology is the relationship between plants and animals in a polar environment. Polar environments are in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Arctic regions are in the Northern Hemisphere , and it contains land and the islands that surrounds it.