![]() That changes everything, from local biology to global meteorology.Īnd the Arctic is melting fast. A 1☌ rise in temperatures at the equator-from, say, 25☌ to 26☌-will have effects, but does not change much. But it is where the impact of a warming climate is most vividly seen. The Arctic, sparsely populated and rarely visited by outsiders, is easily forgotten by those at lower latitudes. And that knowledge is changing people's understanding of the world's northernmost habitat. This revelation of life in the middle of the polar night is one of many surprises of recent Arctic science. Larvae were turning into adults and a few species were even reproducing. ![]() Instead of hibernating, they were developing. His research, and that of his colleagues, showed that planktonic animals such as copepods (pictured above) and krill were abundant, active and grazing on the still smaller algae of the phytoplankton, themselves adapted to manage with the tiniest sliver of winter light. Robert Campbell of the University of Rhode Island, one of Healey's supercargo of scientists, outlined the details at Arctic Frontiers, a scientific conference held in Tromso, Norway, last month. Instead, they found a ferment of activity. Those on board expected creatures to be sparse in number and entering hibernation. The sun did not appear in the northern Chukchi for weeks. It was the beginning of the winter-long polar night. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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