Antarctica

Is home of many unknown and endangered creatures and organisms

That are effected by global warming

And by Humans as well as many other predators

The Beauty of Antarctica…• Its total area is about 14

million square kilometers that is consisted mostly of ice (that’s 1.4 times bigger then the USA)

• There are no flying insects (they’d get blown away)

• When the sun shines on the ice it can be reflected off the inner surfaces giving a whole variety of effects and colors

• Its has 90% of all the worlds ice (70% of all the worlds fresh water frozen as ice)

Climate

3 factors rule in Antarctica • cold, wind and altitude. • Antarctica holds the world record for each of

these three things. • The temperature falls as you leave the

coast as the continent slopes upwards and temperature falls as you go higher.

• Average summer temperature at South Pole -27.5°C / -17.5°F

• Average winter temperature at South Pole -60°C / -76°F

It’s a home…

To many types of penguins such as…

• King penguins• Emperor penguins • Gentoo penguins • Chinstrap penguins And more..

It’s a home…

To other birds such as…• Blue eyed shag• Antarctic tern• Cape pigeon• Giant petrelAnd more…

It’s a home…

To many types of seals such as…

• Southern fur seals• Southern elephant

seals• Leopard seals• Weddell seals And more…

There are also many marine animals that live in the oceans around Antarctica

• As we all know global warming is happening. But what we really don’t know is how fast it is occurring and what will be affected by it.

• Because Antarctica is ice. If it all melts away then that means less area space for all of the animals that live there (and this would then mean a major alter in its ecosystem)

• Also if all of Antarctica’s ice sheets melted, all the worlds oceans would rise by 60-65 meters each (This would cause flooding in most areas since there is just no place for the water to go)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGGv62Gg3Gs

Temperatures of the oceans will go up

This will cause problems because then more predators like sharks and predatory crabs will appear and cause chaos in the existing marine life that lives around Antarctica. Right now most of the Marine life don’t have any type of defense because the water is just too cold for all of there predators. The food chain will be thrown off balance completely if predators come.

Each year Antarctica is visited by more than 40,000 tourists.

They visit to see the beauties and wonders of this continent but they don’t realize that because the weather is getting warmer any insects and other foreign organisms that travel with them (on clothes) will be able to survive. And Rats and other rodents will also be able to thrive and cause a threat to the ecosystem.

Scientists are also fearful that weed species will be able to grow and create whole grasslands.

• Humans also cause a threat to the life on Antarctica because of all the trash that is thrown into the oceans

• And Whalers and other hunters are starting to kill too much to get all the blubber and leather that they need but they are not giving the animals time to reproduce. Seals and some other fish are starting to get caught in the lines

• And oil spills are extremely bad to the Antarctic environment

Thankfully there are now laws to help with all of these things.

FuN FaCtS!!• It has been estimated that during the feeding season in

Antarctica, a full grown blue whale eats about 4 million krill per day (that’s 4 tons every day for 6 months.)

• Antarctica is the best place in the world to find meteorites. Dark meteorites show up against the white expanse of ice and snow and don't get covered by vegetation

• Antarctica has a peculiar group of fish called the ice fish. These have no red pigment in their blood to carry oxygen around. They get by perfectly well without it because the temperature is so low and oxygen dissolves better in cold temperatures.

• Icebergs are made of freshwater ice and not of frozen sea water (because salt waters doesn’t freeze)