Lecture 3: January 15th Flashcards
Isostatic Rebound
The reason that tundra land is rising
Greater Scaup
a northern diving duck, found in the tundra in the summer
Snow Geese
have two colours, transformation of forest to farmland and prairies to corn fields. the number of eggs a female lays depends on how fat they are when they arrive. they eat by digging up the ground to eat the tubers of plants, but this has negative impacts on the land. their feces also chemically affect the ground, rich in nitrogen so plants that do not like nitrogen will die off.
Frogs in Tundra
wood frogs, boreal frogs can survive the tundra because they are freeze tolerant
Rivers that flow into Hudson Bay
more than half of the rivers in canada flow into the the Hudson Bay. Hudson Bay is part of the arctic ocean. these rives are fresh water habitats, they make the HB less salty. This results in HB freezing over, ducks have to migrate in the winter.
King Eider
Sea duck found in the tundra, have lots of down feathers for warmth. They nest along the coast of the hudson bay.
Loons
common loon, red throated loons and pacific loons are found in the tundra. This means that there are lots of fish in HB. Loons eat salt water fish, they have a salt gland that removes the salt from the fish, they exude the salt from their bill. they also migrate because HB freezes over.
Mammals
- ringed and bearded seals
- walruses
- beluga wales
- polar bears
Walruses
a colony of atlantic walruses is found off Cape Henrietta Maria. They feed mostly on clams, teeth help to forage for clams, also used to drag themselves across the ground. They use blubber as insulation.
Polar Bears
seals and walruses are food for polar bears. Southern most population in the world of polar bears. This is why polar bear provincial park was formed. Ontario’s biggest park, 2 and a half million hectares. Polar bears are not really protected, because they travelled to Quebec to counteract warming flares, there are no laws against killing them in QC.
Sand dunes
found on the edge of HB, drier because they are more elevated, good site for certain plant growth.
American Dune Grass
Colonized sand dunes, range map shows that this subarctic plant also grows along Lake Superior. Beaches are important for polar bears to give birth, nesting site for arctic terns that feed along and coast and rivers. They are often robbed of fish by parasitic jaegers, these birds harass terns and take their fish.
Halophytic
Salt tolerant plants, have thick leaves, protective from abrasive particles and they can hold and retain seawater
Seaside Lungwort
indicator species, these plants have salt glands, extract salt from water and exude it from the leaves.
Arctic Fox
white to blend in with the snow, primarily scavengers. White fur retains heat with hollow spaces in the hair. Small stature, small extremities. Long fluffy tail to keep their body warm while sleeping. Dense fur in the winter, a raised beach ridge is a perfect den for an arctic fox.
Stranded beach ridges
Provide nesting for sand pipers and plovers. Semipalmated plovers are common in the tundra zone. Hudsonian godwits nest on the coast of HB. Dunlins nest on sedge and moss hummocks, which are slightly raised above the water. the Least sandpipers do the same
Niche partitioning
permitted by different bill sizes, seze depends on the bill size (resource partitioning).
Sphagnum mosses
important wetland colonizers, help keep the ground frozen. They dominate and create their own habitat, petland. When growth is greater than decomposition, the moss layer gets thicker, creating its own form of soil, organic soil
Reindeer Lichens
plateaus become more prominent the farther you get from the coast. Woodland caribou move into the tundra in summer to graze the lichens. Big movement in the summer into Ontario, called lichen burners because of their fondness of lichens. Caribou migrate to the HB lowland, after summer they head back
Bergmann’s rule
surface area to volume is equal ratio.
