Polar Science 2006 Blog
Week 6 Challenge Questions from the Ice Team
Posted By: Shawn_Noren, Dr. Kanatous on Sunday, November 12, 2006
Read our Week 6 report in the Expedition News focus area or from this link.
Question #10
Looking at the temperature graph in the Week 6 update answer the following question: Why are the seals’ skin temperatures intermediate to that of their core body temperatures and the air temperature. Think about how the animal does this physiologically and why this is important for the seal’s survival?
Question #11
Looking at the blubber graph in the Week 6 update answer the following questions: Why would you expect that juveniles might need thicker blubber (thicker “winter coat”) than adults? What property of blubber may explain why we did not find this pattern?
Question #12
A Weddell seal pup is born at about 20 kg and after 4 weeks of nursing a pup can weigh 80 kg. Calculate how many kg this pup gains per day? Assuming that the mother’s milk is comprised of 70% fat and 30% protein and that the pup assimilates 100% of its mother’s milk, how many calories does the pup ingest per day? Given the calorie value for milk and the amount of calories ingested by the pup per day, how many liters of milk did that pup drink per day? Also calculate the total liters of milk consumed by the pup over the entire 28 day nursing period.
Post your answers to the Challenge Questions messages area.
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