Artic eco-system By Claudia Tremble

A eco-system also known as a food web is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. (Dictionary, 2014). Above is an example of an artic eco-system

The Arctic ecosystem has a unique, complex food web that is fashioned by its distinctive plankton, animal species, and environmental factors. Carbon also cycles through the web from atmosphere to seawater and back. Phytoplankton and algae take up carbon dioxide from seawater and transform it into the organic carbon of their tissue. Then it flows through successive levels of eating animals that convert their prey’s carbon into their own tissues or into sinking fecal pellets. Along the way, some carbon dioxide escapes back to the atmosphere through the organisms' respiration.

Main creatures that make up the artic eco-system are humans, polar bears, seals, walrus, bowhead whale, jelly fish, fish, detritus, zooplankton, ice algae, sea stars & sea urchins.

The Arctic ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to threats from human impacts like climate change.

Arctic organisms live in the water column, on the seafloor, and on the ice of the artic. The Organisms of the ecosystem like worms, copepods, bacteria, and phytoplankton live inside the ice, within pores and channels.

As the ice melts leaves an open space for different speices to interact with each other.

Shiny ice and snow reflect a high proportion of the sun's energy into space. As the Arctic loses snow and ice, bare rock and water absorb more and more of the sun’s energy, making it ever warmer. This is called the albedo effect.

In this picture above shows how the artic ecosystem can interact with other ecosystems such as the land ecosystems.

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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ecosystem • Arctic climate change (N.D.). WWF. Retrieved June 5th 2014 from

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/arctic/what_we_do/climate/• What is “ecosystem services” (N.D.). Life sun. retrieved June 5th 2014 from

http://lifesun.info/tag/ecosystem/• The artic ocean ecosystem: the food web (2005). Dive and Discover, deeper discovery. Retrieved

from http://divediscover.whoi.edu/arctic-ecosystem/• Arctic ecology (N.D.). Life in the arctic. Retrieved June 5th 2014. from

http://oceansnorth.org/arctic-ecology• Figure of complex arctic system (N.D.). Retrieved june 5th 2014. from

http://www.2farnorth.com/jmossdesignoriginal/portfolio/illustration.php• The Antarctic ecosystem, (N.D.) Oceanus magazine. Retrieved 4th June 2014. from

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/interactives• Global warming takes a toll on the arctic ecosystem (29,oct.2009). The Christian science monitor.

Retrieved 3rd June 2014. from http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2009/1029/global-warming-takes-a-toll-on-arctic-ecosystem

• Knock-on effects for wildlife as the arctic loses ice, (01, Aug, 2013). The carbon Brief. Retrieved 4th June 2014. from http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/08/knock-on-effects-for-wildlife-as-the-arctic-loses-ice/