How are lakes remnants of the Pleistocene glaciation?
"Though the last glaciation ended about 12,500 years ago, remnants of this climatic episode are common around the world today. For example, increased precipitation in North America's Great Basin area created enormous lakes (map of lakes) in a normally dry area. Lake Bonneville was one and once covered most of what is today Utah. Great Salt Lake is today's largest remaining portion of Lake Bonneville but the old shorelines of the lake can be seen on the mountains around Salt Lake City. "Various landforms also exist around the world because of the enormous power of moving glaciers and ice sheets. In Canada's Manitoba for instance, numerous small lakes dot the landscape. These were formed as the moving ice sheet gouged out the land beneath it. Over time, the depressions formed filled with water creating "kettle lakes.""
Briney, Amanda. "The Last Glaciation - An Overview of Global Glaciation." Geography Home Page - Geography at About.com. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. <http://geography.about.com/od/climate/a/glaciation.htm>.
Marine
"Chemosynthetic bacteria thrive near these vents because of the large amounts of hydrogen sulfide and other minerals they emit. These bacteria are thus the start of the food web as they are eaten by invertebrates and fishes."
What makes bacteria such good eating? If they sit there and feed off the vents which contain hydrogen sulfide and other minerals how come the bacteria don't get poisonous?
" On the one hand, they take toxic hydrogen sulfide out of the environment and basically turn it into food. The bacteria also grow on some of the creatures, creating a bacto-blanket that protects them from heat."
Francis, Joe. "Deep-Sea Vents: Life's Toxic Sanctuary." Answers in Genesis - Creation, Evolution, Christian Apologetics. 3 June 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n3/toxic-sanctuary>.
"The bacteria, in turn, benefit from the relationship because the worms deliver blood-containing hemoglobin, which helps the bacteria to break down the sulfides."
"Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents." Extreme Science. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.extremescience.com/zoom/index.php/life-in-the-deep-ocean/42-deep-sea-hydrothermal-vents>.
Desert
"The animals include small nocturnal (active at night) carnivores. The dominant animals are burrowers and kangaroo rats. There are also insects, arachnids, reptiles and birds. The animals stay inactive in protected hideaways during the hot day and come out to forage at dusk, dawn or at night, when the desert is cooler."
Why do animals live in the desert if they don't like the heat? Why wait to come out at night when you can come out even in the day if you lived somewhere else?
"It is a specialist environment but not really any harder to live in if you are adapted for it. Desert biomes have to rely more on predation because of lack of vegetation so there is a lot of rungs on the predator ladder and some unique defenses."
"Why Do Animals Live in the Desert? - Yahoo! Answers." Yahoo! Answers - Home. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080219164148AA2SadR>.
Is there a difference in gymnosperm plants and angiosperm plants in terms of plant biology? How would dinosaurs have digested them or are all plants the same?
"In the beginning of the Triassic Period, the landmasses were all together in what is known as Pangaea. The climate was very warm and dry. Eventually, because of Plate Tectonics and diverging plates, Pangaea started to spread apart. Water flowed into the middle of the supercontinent, which cooled down the climate (The same thing happened between South America and Africa; if the were put together, they would fit). Anyway, by the end of the Cretaceous Period, it was much colder then the Triassic. Many people think that dinosaurs, being reptiles, were coldblooded. This may have killed many large dinosaurs. Also, the new climate may have produced new plant life. Maybe plant eating dinosaurs could not digest the new flowering plants, and it poisoned them. "
"Answers.com - Why Did the Dinosaurs Die." WikiAnswers - The Q&A Wiki. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_dinosaurs_die>.
Grassland
Why do elephants eat trees? What is the benefit of eating bark and wood?
"Animals gnawing the bark and wood of trees and shrubs is not a malicious act or evidence of a neurotic condition. Instead, it is the normal means by which some animals acquire a nutritious food source. The ability to consume this seemingly unpalatable food supply and derive nourishment from it requires specialized feeding habits and digestive systems."
"Even mammals ranging in size from mice to elephants consume bark and woody branches. They all have specialized digestive systems that allow them to extract nourishment from this material, something humans cannot do. "
"Although cellulose is a pure carbohydrate, it is not a source of food for humans or most other organisms because they lack the enzymes necessary to digest it. Starch, which many animals including humans can metabolize because they produce amylase enzymes, is similar to cellulose except the long chains of glucose are linked in an alpha configuration. Cellulose has as much food value as starch, but only animals that maintain colonies of microorganisms in their gut that produce the enzyme cellulase are capable of digesting it."
Chaney, William R. "Why Do Animals Eat the Bark and Wood of Trees and Shrubs?" Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources. Aug. 2003. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR_203.pdf>.
Tundra
If there is a permanent layer of permafrost all year round how much soil does the tundra lose to erosion every year?
"Erosion is especially evident and worrisome in coastal areas, may of which are also being ravaged by winter storm surge as the protective barrier of sea ice appears later and later (if at all) during the year. Intact permafrost is extremely resilient. However, when it becomes compromised, it and the ground above and below it become much more vulnerable to the erosive forces of wind and water."
"Permafrost : Weather Underground." Welcome to Weather Underground : Weather Underground. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.wunderground.com/climate/permafrost.asp>.
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