Ronald Richards

Professor Timmins
Biology 1090
3/20/2017
South Georgias Giant Ice History
In the article scientist begin to discus some of South Georgia Islands
history. Throughout the years the islands glaciers were being forced out
changing its position on the ridge of the continental Shelf. Before the South
Georgia islands had been covered by ice. They had conducted an
investigation to where they would try to track the temperature history and
it's future behaviors. In the article they scientist assumed that the ice caps
would be small. They did some sonar surveys, which helped them to detect
markings on the ridges from the glaciers. They also were able to know the
time frame from of initial occurrence by fossils and other remnants left on
the seal floor.
From the primary source from Nature Communications, talks about the
history of the islands, and how they are unclear about the sub polar islands.
The time frames of the event, which may have slowly caused the glaciers to
erode, are argued. They also conclude by saying that the glacier climate
from last was more important than they would of thought from previous
research. Both of the article and the primary both compliment each other as
the primary shows more fact in showing what happened to this island and
the history of it. The article is very brief but still has some fact just not
enough detail to tell you why its occurring and more about the effect on the
living organisms.
Because of temperature change in the environment it has affected the
wildlife. In the article it talked about how as the glaciers deteriorate the rocks
which would produce a powder full of iron but with less glaciers it effects the
rocks from getting broken down which produces a powder full of iron. It
gives rise to big blooms of plankton which then drive the ecosystem from the
bottom up - from the plankton and zooplankton, to the krill, all the way up to
the seals, birds and penguins. This is why you get this intense concentration
of biota around South Georgia (Amos 2017)." This can harm the food chain
especially because some the species there may have been accustomed to
the colder environment.
In this article it helps us to know that there were scientist from the
United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia that helped investigate the seafloor.
Also Exeter University may have been affiliated with the research.
In the article it helped me to understand on how through out the years
the glaciers of the islands eroded and some of the effected to the ecosystem.
I would of liked to know more about if it was due to continental drift, which is
why the glaciers were melting. It stated that they were pushed but not
stating what was the action that did it or at least theories. I feel like they
should of given more information just because it left me with questions
unanswered. I did learn a lot I never new much about the South Georgia
Islands and now Im interested to know more about the history and the
wildlife then to compare to it now. I also got to learn more about how
technology can be used to find time frame of events and help us to know
more about an environment.

Citation
Amos, Jonathan. "Scientists trace South Georgia's giant ice history." BBC
News. March 19, 2017. Accessed March 20, 2017.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39303480.

Reflection
1. This article really struck my interest because the temperature of and
environment can have a huge change of a environment and the
species dwelling within the environment. Different species will die off
and it can eliminate a whole species or cause a species to move to a
different part of an area. Throughout the article there many links or
cites that you could view to see some evidence of the temperature
changes in the South Georgia Islands. Also made references to the
technology used to perform to find the evidence of research.
2. The article made many connections on how a climate of a environment
can affect the wildlife with in it. In the article it stated; It gives rise to
big blooms of plankton which then drive the ecosystem from the
bottom up - from the plankton and zooplankton, to the krill, all the way
up to the seals, birds and penguins. This is why you get this intense
concentration of biota around South Georgia (Amos 2017)." There were
also many other references of impact to food chain. If the food chain is
not balanced then the environment around it will start to fall and if that
it does then you just have a corrupted environment or nothing living
there at all due to the lack of food for the predators.
3. In the class I have been able to learn a lot of how the body functions,
also how the body naturally defends itself against foreign elements. I
never really though of how things are or why they work that way I just
always thought well how fortunate for us this happens. When you
understand why or how it happens it just makes you value it a lot more
and not take it for granted. For example an immune system you will
never value how great it is that you have one till you see someone
who's is not performing the proper functions, as it should. I am happy I
took this class because it was a eye opener and every chapter
contained something new to learn.

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