Arctic Life of Birds and Mammals

Arctic Life of Birds and Mammals
Author: L. Irving
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642856551

After travel through Alaska during the Second World War, in 1947 I went to Barrow with a very lively group of biologists. From their productive research developed the Arctic Research Laboratory. While we examined the rather surpris ingly modest metabolic rates of arctic warmblooded animals in cold, PER SCHO LANDER proposed and then carried out measurements of metabolism of some tropi cal animals in Panama. The differences could be formulated to show the basis of adaptation to arctic cold and to tropical warmth. Imagination and logic were required to formulate the comparison so that it could become a part of science, but the essential measurements were derived from animals and plants in their own arctic and tropical environments. Characteristics that adapt the forms of life to climatic conditions of various environments appear clear in the large dimensions of extremely differing climates. At the time of my arrival in Alaska many of the arctic Eskimos were still largely dependent on natural resources of their immediate and local environment, in which great seasonal changes in temperature and solar radiation appeared as dominant factors. The living environment on which they subsisted was also mar kedly affected by the changes of the seasons, in particular by the change in state of water to ice that terminated summer and by the melting that brought the late transition from winter to summer.

New Perspectives on the Caledonides of Scandinavia and Related Areas

New Perspectives on the Caledonides of Scandinavia and Related Areas
Author: F. Corfu
Publisher: Geological Society of London
Total Pages: 710
Release: 2014-04-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 186239377X

The Caledonides are a major orogenic belt that stretches from the Arctic, through Scandinavia, East Greenland, Britain and Ireland into the Atlantic coast of North America. Following the break-up of Rodinia, the Caledonides formed in the Palaeozoic by the drifting of various continents and their eventual aggregation in the Silurian and Devonian. The orogen subsequently fragmented during the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. This volume brings together 25 papers presenting the results of modern research that investigates the orogenic processes and the provenance of specific components of the belt. The contributions reflect different lines of research, linking traditional field studies with modern analytical techniques. In addition three overview papers summarize the main features of the belts in Scandinavia, Svalbard, East Greenland, Britain and Ireland, highlighting the advances made since the last major synthesis of the Scandinavian Caledonides 30 years ago, and discussing important open questions.

An Annotated Checklist of the Marine Macroinvertebrates of Alaska

An Annotated Checklist of the Marine Macroinvertebrates of Alaska
Author: David Thomas Drumm
Publisher:
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2016
Genre: Marine animals
ISBN:

A current and comprehensive species list of marine invertebrates of Alaska is essential for effective management of living marine resources, sustainable fisheries, conservation of vulnerable ecosystems, and advancement of our knowledge of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Furthermore, the most current checklist available to resource managers and scientists is quite dated and limited in that it only includes the marine invertebrates of the southern coast of Alaska to California. Since that checklist was published, many new species have been described, many range extensions have been discovered, and considerable changes in higher-level systematics have been made. The checklist that we have compiled lists 3708 species and presents for each species the currently accepted scientific name and its significant synonyms, common names, type localities, geographic and depth distributions, a general statement of abundance in Alaska when known (e.g., rare, uncommon, common, abundant), and general remarks. It includes species recorded in the marine waters of Alaska from the intertidal zone, continental shelf, and upper continental slope to abyssal depths, from the Beaufort Sea at the Arctic border with Yukon, Canada; the eastern Chukchi Sea, the eastern Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands to the western border with Russia; and the Gulf of Alaska to Dixon Entrance at the southern border with British Columbia. Sound and reliable taxonomic identifications are necessary to monitor and predict changes in the distribution and abundance of marine species. The current status and future direction of the study of Alaskan marine invertebrate biodiversity are briefly discussed.