Characteristics Of The Antarctic Ecosystem

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent on Earth, a place with no permanent human residents and a temperature that once fell to nearly minus ninety degrees. Yet beneath the frozen surface and in the icy Southern Ocean teems one of the planet's most remarkable food webs, built on tiny shrimp-like krill that feed penguins, seals and the largest animals that have ever lived.

This lesson explains where the Antarctic ecosystem lies, why its climate is so extreme, and how its plants and animals are adapted to survive. You will learn to link the abiotic factors of cold, ice, light and pressure to the living organisms that depend on them, exactly the kind of connected thinking examiners reward.