What is the food web of a polar bear?

Polar bears are the keystone species, tertiary consumers that help keep the food web in balance. And tertiary consumers, top of the food chain, in the Arctic ecosystem. They mainly eat seals, but sometimes whales and baby walruses. Since polar bears are a keystone species, they keep the ecosystem in balance.

What do polar bear eat in the Arctic?

Polar bears largely eat ringed and bearded seals, but depending upon their location, they may eat harp, hooded and ribbon seal. A 121-pound seal can provide 8 days worth of energy – but the bear needs to eat much more in order to store up reserves.

Are polar bears on the top of the food chain in the Arctic?

As apex predators, polar bears are at the top the Arctic food chain. Only humans pose a threat to this massive and majestic species.

What is the food web in the Arctic Ocean?

Ocean Food Chain The primary consumers in the Arctic Ocean are phytoplankton and crustaceans that consume the zooplankton. Harp seals are secondary consumers, which mainly eat fish like Arctic cod and Arctic char, and some crustaceans. The top predators, or tertiary consumers, are polar bears and the Orca whale.

What is a food web in the desert?

Desert Food Chains They usually consist of a producer, a consumer and a predator, with the predator being the top of the food chain. The top of the desert food chain does eventually die though, and is returned to the bottom of the chain as nutrients by decomposers.

How is the Arctic food web affected by climate change?

When icy rain falls instead of the usual snow the food becomes impossible to get to and the caribou die. This changing climate throws out the balance of nature and animals often arrive after the best of the food has come and gone. This is also affecting birds such as sandpipers and plovers.

How do polar bears get food?

Stalking. In early summer, polar bears obtain much of their food by stalking seals basking in the sun. The bear will spot his prey and creep upon it in silence, its translucent fur camouflaging the predator against the ice and snow.

Do polar bears eat other polar bears?

ReutersPolar bears have been known to eat each other in the past, but now this once-rare phenomenon is rampant. With climate change melting Arctic ice and humans encroaching on their habitat, polar bears have increasingly resorted to killing and eating each other.

What animals eat polar bears?

Adult polar bears have no natural predators, though walruses and wolves can kill them.

Do polar bears eat Arctic foxes?

To summarize, Arctic Foxes can sometimes become the prey of Polar Bears, but they are not their regular food source. Polar bears will usually only kill and eat Arctic Foxes when food is scarce and hard to find.

What is at the bottom of an Arctic food web?

Ice algae form the base of the food web. Some algae stay attached to the bottom of the ice, some fall into the water column, and some fall to the bottom of the sea, and so provide food for species that feed at different depths.

How is the food web unique in the Arctic area?

In open-water, or pelagic, ecosystems phytoplankton form the base, or first trophic level of the marine food web. One unusual feature of marine arctic food webs is that primary production can only occur during a very short period of the year.

What helps a polar bear find food?

– Reducing the insulation of polar bear fur from spilled oil. – Poisoning from ingesting oil and eating contaminated prey. – Disturbance. – Destruction of habitat. – Impacts on entire food webs. – Oil spreading to areas outside of the Arctic

Is it hard for polar bears to find food?

Something is happening to the polar bears. As the arctic ice melts, these bears must look for food on land, and there isn’t enough to go around. The polar bear is a fearsome hunter and, when it’s time to eat, there’s nothing it finds more satisfying than a hearty meal of ringed seal.

What is the preferred food of the polar bear?

Seal

What does a polar bear rely on to catch food?

Fish