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Glossary
adaptation
A characteristic or feature of a plant or animal that helps it survive, adaptations evolve over long time periods e.g. birds that become flightless
A simple form of plant that usually lives in water
Ice that forms on the sea floor
Antarctic Circumpolar Current
An ocean current that flows clockwise from west to east around Antarctica
Caused by people e.g. ocean acidification is caused by people increasing carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolutions
The air around us
Tiny one celled organisms
Of the sea floor
Life on the sea floor
Small broken pieces of iceberg
The range or variety of living things in a particular area
The part of the Earth system to do with all living things
brine
As salt is squeezed out of freezing sea water a slushy mixture known as brine is formed (a salty liquid mixture)
Ancient marine life form, also known as moss animals which live in colonies and build a skeleton of calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells.
The process by which an organism builds a shell or external skeleton from calcium carbonate
When icebergs break away from ice shelves
carbon
A natural chemical element found in all living, or once living things
carbon-13
A natural form of carbon found more in sea ice algae than in open ocean algae
Just as the "water cycle" describes the transfer of water molecules between rivers, oceans, land and the atmosphere, the "carbon cycle" refers to the flow of carbon through different parts of the Earth system – including the air and the bodies of plants and animals
When a carbon atom joins with two oxygen atoms, a lot of carbon dioxide comes from burning things containing carbon
Molecules made up of different types of atoms bonded together
The average weather over many years
Rapid change in climate due to human activity (mainly burning fossil fuels) increasing heat trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
All the living things in a particular area
An organism that eats other organisms for food
One of the seven large areas of land on earth
cyst
A cluster of cells that have grouped together to form a sac
An organism that breaks down other dead organisms
This is all the living (e.g. animals, plants) and non-living (e.g. light, water) things within a particular area
Sea ice that is held in place year after year
This shows what eats what in a community
frazil
The first ice crystals that form on the sea's surface when the water temperature dips below 1.8 degrees Celsisus, are known as frazil
A river of ice
When the average temperature on earth naturally falls
When the average temperature on earth naturally rises
The natural way the earth is warmed 33 degrees by its atmosphere
Gulf Stream
A powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida
All the water's on the Earth's surface, such as lakes and seas
An explanation of why things happen that can be tested by scientists
A period when the earth's climate is colder
A large area of ice formed when glaciers join together
A large area of floating ice, formed when glaciers flow out to sea
Part of a glacier or ice shelf that has broken off and floated away
invertebrates
Animals without a backbone e.g. sea urchins
katabatic winds
When cold air descends from high mountains down into lower areas because the cold air is denser (heavier)
Young form of an animal such as a sea urchin before it grows into the adult form
The solid rocky layer covering the surface of the Earth including the crust and upper mantle
Large forms of algae e.g. seaweed
The iceshelf that fills McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
The area of the Ross Sea between Ross Island and the TransAntarctic Mountains
A greenhouse gas CH4 produced from the breakdown of once living things
Small forms of algae formed of only one cell
Single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle. They are the oldest form of life on earth
A microscopic organism, which may be a single cell or multicellular organism
Sometimes called laughing gas, a greenhouse gas produced by bacteria and by people through agriculture
The lowering of the pH of the oceans due to their absorbtion of carbon dioxide
Large flows of water in the oceans
A living thing
A gas made up of three oxygen atoms which is naturally present in the upper atmosphere, it helps protect Earth from harmful UV radiation
A measure of how acidic (or alkaline) a substance is
The process that plants carry out to harness the sun's energy and carbon dioxide to make sugars for food
Microscopic algae that live in the upper regions of the sea
A fold or buckle in ice, often where ice collides with land
An organism that can use the Sun's energy to make food from carbon dioxide and water
A piece of equipment between a diver's airtank and mouthpiece that controls the airflow to the diver
A place where penguins breed
The huge Antarctic ice shelf directly south of New Zealand
The island in Antarctica formed by Mt Erebus, also the location of Scott Base
Part of the Pacific Ocean that juts into Antarctica and ends in the Ross Ice Shelf
sea ice
Sea ice is formed on the ocean surface when the water temperature falls to –2 degrees Celsius. It floats because it is less dense than sea water
Sea Ice Microbial Community, a group of microorganisms that live in or on the underside of sea ice
A line made through an area to be studied along which samples are taken
vertebrates
Animals with backbones e.g. whales
Day to day changes in the atmosphere
zooplankton
Zooplankton are tiny animals that feed off either phytoplankton or other zooplankton e.g. young krill