ANTARTIC OCEAN
By: Sofía Echeverry.
What are the main characteristics of the ecosystem?
Northern limit. The rhumb line joining the point situated I Mile South of Cape Horn in Lat. 56° S. to the point situated in Lat. 40° S., Long. 20° E. From this point, the parallel of 40° South latitude towards the East as far as the meridian 115° East. From this point, the rhumb line to the point situated in Lat. 56° S., Long. 166° E. (South of Auckland I.) and thence, the parallel 56° S. as far as the point situated 1 Mile South of Cape Horn.
The sea temperature varies from +10 ° C to -2 ° C. Cyclonic storms move eastward turning around the Antarctic continent and are often of high intensity, and because of the temperature difference between the ice and the open ocean.
What are the conditions of the abiotic factors?
The annual extent of ice cover, water, sediments, currents, rocks, salinity, pressure, water depth, winds, sunlight, temperature, and other weather & climate conditions.
Animals in Southern Ocean.
There's some examples.
Examples of biotic factors of each ecosystem. Food webs.
Biotic Factors:
Fish, krill, plankton, phytoplankton, algae, mollusks, corals, marine mammals, penguins, albatross. Everything that has lifeFood Web:
Krill are such a universal food in Antarctica that for almost every animal that lives here, a “three degrees of krill” rule applies: You are krill, or you eat krill, or your food eats krill. Whales, seals, penguins, albatross, petrels, fish, squid—every animal species living in Antarctica depends directly or indirectly on krill for survival.
Human impact on the Southern Ocean.
Human impacts include:
- Harvesting some Antarctic species to the verge of extinction for economic benefit.
- Killing and disturbing other species.
- Contaminating the soils.
- Discharging sewage to the sea and leaving rubbish, cairns and tracks in even the most remote parts.
Ways to protect these ecosystem.
- No Antarctic bird or mammal can be killed or captured without a permit - granted only for scientific reasons.
- Measures must be taken to minimize harmful interference with wildlife and control the introduction of non-native species - animal or plant, even to the point of not taking soil or growing compost to Antarctica as it may contain plant seeds, fungal spores and adults or eggs of any number of soil-dwelling invertebrates.
- The establishment of specially protected areas to protect sites of outstanding scientific interest and designate specially protected species.
- Seals in particular are covered by a 1972 convention designed to prevent the resumption of sealing killing of both Ross and Antarctic fur seals is totally prohibited and catch limits are set deliberately at low levels. All six seal species that breed in the Antarctic are covered.
- Commercial fisheries in the Southern Ocean are controlled by the CCAMLR - Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The aim of the Convention is to conserve marine life of the Southern Ocean - this does not exclude harvesting carried out in a rational manner.
- The discharge into the sea within the Antarctic Treaty Area of all toxic and noxious chemicals, oil and oily wastes, plastics and other forms of non-biodegradable rubbish, is prohibited. The discharge of other wastes (such as sewage from ships and bases) is strictly regulated.
- Mining has been prohibited