Glacier Bay National Park by Anna Livingston

Glacier Bay National Park

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 19:19:02 UTC

Glacier Bay is national park located in southeast Alaska. It's known for its massive glaciers and beautiful landscape. It's home to many land and marine animals.

Ecological Communities

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 19:30:02 UTC

Glacier Bay is an aquatic biome that houses animals such as humpback whales, orcas and sea otters. These animals are biotic factors, meaning they are living things that affect the ecosystem. Some abiotic factors, meaning nonliving things that affect an ecosystem, are its glaciers and mountains.

https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/nature/mammals.htm

Food Web

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 19:33:07 UTC

A food web consists of overlapping food chains. This food web represents a few of the animals living in Glacier Bay and which animal eats which.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/glba-marine-environment.htm#:~:text=When%20the%20vegetation%20decomposes%2C%20it,grow%20in%20large%20kelp%20forests

Food Pyramid

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 19:38:21 UTC

A food pyramid shows the different food groups. In this food pyramid it starts with plants which has 1000kcal. Next is the primary consumers which has 100kcal, then is secondary consumers with 10kcal. At the top is the tertiary consumers with 1kcal.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/glba-marine-environment.htm#:~:text=When%20the%20vegetation%20decomposes%2C%20it,grow%20in%20large%20kelp%20forests

Community Dynamics

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 21:51:49 UTC

Many animals in an ecosystem have to share resources, and when that happens it's called niche-partitioning. An example of this would be moose and mountain goats. They share similar diets of grass and leaves, so they have to share these resources to survive. Every species has a role in an ecosystem and taking one out would greatly impact it. Again using moose and mountain goats for an example, if they were to be removed, the ecosystem would change. There would be an increase growth of plants and probably also a decrease in carnivorous animals, as they have less food available to them.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/what-do-moose-eat/

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 22:02:32 UTC

A significant abiotic factor in Glacier Bay would obviously be its glaciers. Lots of animals rely on the glaciers for survival. Some examples are kittlitz’s murrelets who build their nests by glaciers. There's also harbor seals who give birth on the glaciers and small fish who's habitat is glacier meltwater.

https://www.usgs.gov/geology-and-ecology-of-national-parks/ecology-glacier-bay-national-park#:~:text=Over%20time%2C%20the%20glaciers%20have,National%20Park%20from%20the%20air

Matter Cycling

livingstonanna — 2024-10-28 22:10:33 UTC

Water is cycled through the national park by its glaciers, ocean, and rain. Carbon in cycled through the park's plants by photosynthesis and is released back into the atmosphere by respiration. Nitrogen cycles through the ground and is released through denitrifying bacteria, but it is also released by the waste of animals such as hares, mountain goats, and moose.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147264/where-ice-still-flows-into-glacier-bay

Population Dynamics

livingstonanna — 2024-10-30 15:46:36 UTC

Ecosystems are affected by density dependent factors, factors based on population that effect the ecosystem, and density independent factors, factors that effect the ecosystem but is not based on population. Two density dependent factors are competition and predation while two density independent factors are natural disasters and unusual weather.

https://www.usgs.gov/geology-and-ecology-of-national-parks/ecology-glacier-bay-national-park#:~:text=The%20marine%20waters%20of%20Glacier,even%20different%20types%20of%20corals

Biodiversity

livingstonanna — 2024-10-30 16:15:11 UTC

Biodiversity is the variety of all organisms and their interactions. An example can be Glacier Bay's marine water, which provide a habitat and food for sea animals. Above is an index of over 1000 animals and plants in Glacier Bay including its mammals and sea animals.

https://www.usgs.gov/geology-and-ecology-of-national-parks/ecology-glacier-bay-national-park#:~:text=The%20marine%20waters%20of%20Glacier,even%20different%20types%20of%20corals

Ecological Community Dynamics

livingstonanna — 2024-10-30 16:29:54 UTC

There are three types of relationships in an ecosystem, commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism. Commensalism is when one species benefit while the other is not affected. For example, marbled murrelets nests inland instead of near the shore to insure a safe place for their nest while the trees are unaffected. Mutualism is when both species benefit, like lichen and algae, lichen creates a habitat for algae as well as protection and algae provides food for the lichen. Parasitism is when one species benefit while the other is harmed. An example is when tapeworms infect a moose forming cysts which harms the moose.

https://class-project-glacierbay-750s.weebly.com/bird-symbiotic-relationship.html#:~:text=The%20Marbled%20Murrelet%20has%20a,spruce%20trees%20and%20hemlock%20trees

Competition

livingstonanna — 2024-10-30 16:33:23 UTC

In an ecosystem, there's bound to be competition. An example is bears and wolves. Bears and wolves consume similar diets, forcing them to have to compete with each other for their food. Such animals would be elk, moose, deer, and more.

https://wolf.org/wolf-info/basic-wolf-info/biology-and-behavior/hunting-feeding-behavior/wolves-and-brown-bears/#:~:text=They%20indirectly%20'share'%20a%20common,steal%20their%20hard%2Dearned%20food

Keystone Species

livingstonanna — 2024-10-30 16:38:33 UTC

A keystone species is a species an ecosystem heavily relies on. In Glacier Bay, a keystone species would be sea otters, an endangered species. If sea otters were removed, animals such as sea urchins would eat all the kelp because they're no species to eat them.

https://www.usgs.gov/geology-and-ecology-of-national-parks/ecology-glacier-bay-national-park#:~:text=Sea%20otters%20are%20a%20keystone,and%20resources%20in%20the%20ecosystem

Funding

livingstonanna — 2024-10-30 16:44:27 UTC

Glacier Bay is home to around 420 species of plants, 40 mammals, and over 1,000 glaciers. In some places in the world, people rely on glaciers to provided life sustaining water. However with global warming, these glaciers are starting to melt and are getting worse every year. The park should be funded to protect the beautiful glaciers this park has and protect the home of these incredible animals.

https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciers-matter

Natural Changes in Biodiversity

livingstonanna — 2024-11-01 19:21:22 UTC

Glacier Bay experiences floods and landslides that change biodiversity. Floods usually occur from glacial lake outbursts causing a loss of life. Landslides occur from glaciers melting which can pollute the water causing it to affect fish and the water quality.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36033-x#:~:text=Glacial%20lake%20outburst%20floods%20

Human Impact on Biodiversity

livingstonanna — 2024-11-01 19:22:37 UTC

Humans also have an impact on biodiversity in the park. It's been found that less human activity changes the behavior of the animals as they tend to try to avoid humans. Lowering the threshold of visitors would work to migrate human activity in the park. Another human impact is burning fossil fuels which leads to global warming causing glaciers to melt.

https://glacier-bay-national-park.weebly.com/human-impacts.html#:~:text=Human%20activities%20such%20as%20burning,the%20productivity%20of%20the%20ecosystem