Researchers estimate that there are between 5-10 million different species on Earth (billions if you include microbes) all of which must compete for resources - so what happens when all the good, warm land is taken? These strange organisms have found ways to make icy environments their home - check out...
Many terrible things can happen to a living body if it freezes. Frozen blood can rupture the vessels carrying it (and solidified blood cannot deliver oxygen and nutrients) while extreme cold can freeze-dry flesh and ice crystals forming inside cells can destroy almost any tissue.
Freezing solid should be a death sentence for the frog... but as the cold sets in, the amphibian's liver floods its cells with glucose. This prevents them from freezing or giving up all of their water, but still allows ice to form around the outside of its cells. The animal freezes solid and goes into suspended animation, but without suffering the fatal cellular damage you'd expect.
When the weather warms, the frog rapidly thaws out and continues from where it left off. Curiously, the wood frog recovers faster than amphibians using traditional hibernation at the bottom of a pond.
The Arctic poppy is incredibly adapted to the harsh environment it calls home. The plant is covered in tough black hairs that act like fur and help it retain what little heat it gets. Its flowers are heliotropic - they move to follow the sun, maximizing the amount of sunlight that hits petals. Even the conical shape of the flower helps, bouncing light from petal to petal and collecting as much solar energy as possible. The tough roots of the plant let it thrive in the rocky soil, while the low, compact leaves help it hide from the harsh polar winds.
The Arctic poppy isn't just a survivor - it provides a lifeline for the Arctic bumblebees who visit it for food and to bask on the heat-collecting heliotropic flowers. Though the poppies help, the bees still need to generate some of their own warmth - which they do by shivering their large flight muscles!
The Cryogenic CaterpillarThe arctic woolly bear caterpillar has a problem – its home is simply too cold to live in for the majority of the year. The caterpillar needs temperatures between 15°C and 30°C to move or feed, so the caterpillar basks in the sun when it can and freezes when it can't... in fact, the creature can drop to -70°C and still revive when it thaws. The caterpillar then retreats to a silk hibernaculum for around eleven months of the year, only emerging to feed around June.
This lifestyle means that it takes between seven and fourteen years for the caterpillar to gather enough food to pupate. The adults quickly mate and die before the temperature drops again, giving rise to the next generation of freeze-proof caterpillars.
The phytoplankton appear to be gathering energy through tiny cracks, melt ponds and even thin sections found in the ice sheets - the small amount of light that gets through is still enough for the plankton to work with. These blooms can persist and even grow in the lean months of winter, helping to fuel the food web of the polar regions - phytoplankton are food for zooplankton, which themselves serve as fish-food!
This slow growth is just a holding pattern for phytoplankton. In lighter conditions it can form massive blooms - and if the ice sheets continue to thin, the Arctic may start turning green during summer!
The Medically Miraculous BearIt's no secret that bears hibernate through the winter cold... but the biological traits that keep them fit and healthy in the face of a months-long nap are less well known.
Bears move very little during hibernation, merely switching sides every few days. Humans who went that long without moving would experience muscle and bone degeneration - but bears seem able to switch off the genes responsible for that process while hibernating. If researchers could figure out exactly how, it could offer a solution to everything from osteoporosis to the muscle atrophy seen in astronauts.
This animal has been found at depths of 7200ft, surviving the cold thanks to high concentrations of Trimethylamine N-oxide and urea (acting as biological antifreeze) in their tissues. This chemical cocktail has the side effect of making them poisonous - people and animals who eat the unprepared meat can seemingly become intoxicated.
The Greenland shark is a big animal (reaching over 5m in length) and swims slowly to conserve energy. That said, it can put on a deceptive burst of speed when it closes on prey. Porpoises, seals, fish and reindeer have been found in their stomachs... and an unverified report claims to have found a human leg in one of these predators!
- The Frozen Frog
- The Arctic Poppy (and a Bonus Bee)
- The Cryogenic Caterpillar
- The Algae Growing Beneath the Polar Ice
- The Medically Miraculous Bear
- The Low-Temperature Turtle
- The Coolest Cricket
- The Easy-Going Greenland Shark
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| Wood frogs can survive being frozen alive! (planet_fox) |
The Frozen Frog
The forests of Northern Canada and Alaska offer a wide range of temperatures, ranging from balmy t-shirt weather to lethal frost. Animals living there have to take the bad with the good, and the wood frog is no exception. So how does the diminutive amphibian survive? It bunkers down in the leaf litter... and freezes solid.Many terrible things can happen to a living body if it freezes. Frozen blood can rupture the vessels carrying it (and solidified blood cannot deliver oxygen and nutrients) while extreme cold can freeze-dry flesh and ice crystals forming inside cells can destroy almost any tissue.
Freezing solid should be a death sentence for the frog... but as the cold sets in, the amphibian's liver floods its cells with glucose. This prevents them from freezing or giving up all of their water, but still allows ice to form around the outside of its cells. The animal freezes solid and goes into suspended animation, but without suffering the fatal cellular damage you'd expect.
When the weather warms, the frog rapidly thaws out and continues from where it left off. Curiously, the wood frog recovers faster than amphibians using traditional hibernation at the bottom of a pond.
The Arctic Poppy (and a Bonus Bee)
Inuit Qeqertaat is the northernmost bit of land on Earth - few things live here, and those that do have to be extremely tough. Perhaps that's why a flowering poppy seems so out of place.The Arctic poppy is incredibly adapted to the harsh environment it calls home. The plant is covered in tough black hairs that act like fur and help it retain what little heat it gets. Its flowers are heliotropic - they move to follow the sun, maximizing the amount of sunlight that hits petals. Even the conical shape of the flower helps, bouncing light from petal to petal and collecting as much solar energy as possible. The tough roots of the plant let it thrive in the rocky soil, while the low, compact leaves help it hide from the harsh polar winds.
The Arctic poppy isn't just a survivor - it provides a lifeline for the Arctic bumblebees who visit it for food and to bask on the heat-collecting heliotropic flowers. Though the poppies help, the bees still need to generate some of their own warmth - which they do by shivering their large flight muscles!
 |
| Tundra living isn't easy, but life finds a way... (DiazYamal) |
The Cryogenic CaterpillarThe arctic woolly bear caterpillar has a problem – its home is simply too cold to live in for the majority of the year. The caterpillar needs temperatures between 15°C and 30°C to move or feed, so the caterpillar basks in the sun when it can and freezes when it can't... in fact, the creature can drop to -70°C and still revive when it thaws. The caterpillar then retreats to a silk hibernaculum for around eleven months of the year, only emerging to feed around June.
This lifestyle means that it takes between seven and fourteen years for the caterpillar to gather enough food to pupate. The adults quickly mate and die before the temperature drops again, giving rise to the next generation of freeze-proof caterpillars.
The Algae Growing Beneath the Polar Ice
Would it surprise you to find sunlight-dependent life under the polar ice?
Researchers using Argo floats (essentially robotic probes) to monitor arctic waters found phytoplankton growing beneath the ice. Similar programs in the Antarctic revealed the same thing - small but significant amounts of growth, just enough to keep the algae populations alive until the summer.The phytoplankton appear to be gathering energy through tiny cracks, melt ponds and even thin sections found in the ice sheets - the small amount of light that gets through is still enough for the plankton to work with. These blooms can persist and even grow in the lean months of winter, helping to fuel the food web of the polar regions - phytoplankton are food for zooplankton, which themselves serve as fish-food!
This slow growth is just a holding pattern for phytoplankton. In lighter conditions it can form massive blooms - and if the ice sheets continue to thin, the Arctic may start turning green during summer!
 |
| Bear hibernation could be really useful to human medicine... (Alla Kemelmakher) |
The Medically Miraculous BearIt's no secret that bears hibernate through the winter cold... but the biological traits that keep them fit and healthy in the face of a months-long nap are less well known.
Bears move very little during hibernation, merely switching sides every few days. Humans who went that long without moving would experience muscle and bone degeneration - but bears seem able to switch off the genes responsible for that process while hibernating. If researchers could figure out exactly how, it could offer a solution to everything from osteoporosis to the muscle atrophy seen in astronauts.
The metabolic rate of bears slows down by around 75% during hibernation, and researchers are looking at ways to cause the same effect in humans. The window of time in which a heart attack or stroke could be treated would be vastly extended if we could do the same thing - researchers from the USA and China have even proposed using sedatives and antipsychotics to "fake" hibernation in humans.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of hibernation can be found in black bears, who seem to gain an enhanced ability to heal wounds. Being sedentary, eschewing food and having a slowed metabolism should make any wounds incredibly vulnerable to infection... but researchers found the animals healed cuts quickly, without significant scarring and with little-to-no sign of infection!
The turtles rely on their biochemistry to protect them, raising their blood and liver glucose in response to the cold (much like the wood frog mentioned above) - they also showed a massive increase in taurine. Over 50% of the body water of the turtle can freeze without killing the animal, though a 67% freeze proved fatal.
The turtle accumulates high concentrations of lactate during these partial freezes, as well as having increased blood glycerol. Perhaps this is due to the turtles relying on anaerobic respiration in this semi-frozen state, since blood can no longer supply oxygen to cells.
The Coolest Cricket
The wētā's trick is to freeze solid as the temperature drops. Over 80% of the water in these insects can freeze whilst their cells dehydrate – which helps prevent ice crystals from rupturing cells. In essence, the creature becomes a bit of freeze-dried meat until the temperature rises to a survivable level again. The wētā doesn't actually risk death until reaching -10°C!
The Low-Temperature Turtle
Beneath cold sands, hatchling painted turtles endure temperatures that would prove lethal to an unprotected human. In fact, they've been recorded surviving sustained sub-zero temperatures for as long as eleven days.The turtles rely on their biochemistry to protect them, raising their blood and liver glucose in response to the cold (much like the wood frog mentioned above) - they also showed a massive increase in taurine. Over 50% of the body water of the turtle can freeze without killing the animal, though a 67% freeze proved fatal.
The turtle accumulates high concentrations of lactate during these partial freezes, as well as having increased blood glycerol. Perhaps this is due to the turtles relying on anaerobic respiration in this semi-frozen state, since blood can no longer supply oxygen to cells.
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| Greenland sharks generally leave humans alone... (Barni1) |
The Coolest Cricket
The mountain stone wētā of New Zealand has to survive icy temperatures during the cold months, but there' are advantages to picking such a harsh home - anything looking to prey on (on steal resources from) this cricket must also be able to endure the killing cold.
The wētā's trick is to freeze solid as the temperature drops. Over 80% of the water in these insects can freeze whilst their cells dehydrate – which helps prevent ice crystals from rupturing cells. In essence, the creature becomes a bit of freeze-dried meat until the temperature rises to a survivable level again. The wētā doesn't actually risk death until reaching -10°C!
The Easy-Going Greenland Shark
The Greenland shark is a strange animal that's incredibly well suited to the chilly marine environment. It has a slow metabolism which might also help explain its longevity - the fish can live for at least 250 years... and carbon dating of proteins in their eyes suggest they could break 500.This animal has been found at depths of 7200ft, surviving the cold thanks to high concentrations of Trimethylamine N-oxide and urea (acting as biological antifreeze) in their tissues. This chemical cocktail has the side effect of making them poisonous - people and animals who eat the unprepared meat can seemingly become intoxicated.
The Greenland shark is a big animal (reaching over 5m in length) and swims slowly to conserve energy. That said, it can put on a deceptive burst of speed when it closes on prey. Porpoises, seals, fish and reindeer have been found in their stomachs... and an unverified report claims to have found a human leg in one of these predators!
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