Paper Example on Exploring New Jersey's Climate and Fauna: Bears Adapt to Fluctuating Temperatures

Introduction

New Jersey is flanked by large water bodies such as the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware River giving it an average climate characterized by the very old winter seasons and warm summers that are also significantly humid flank New Jersey. Within 50 miles in New Jersey are black bears that have adapted to the climate especially the fluctuating temperatures that range from 23 degrees centigrade to 30 degrees centigrade. The bears have adapted properly to the climatic condition of New Jersey because the climate is more pronounced between the north and south during the winter season.

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The landscape can be categorized into four mainland regions. For example, the coastal plain, the piedmont as well as the New England upland, and the valley revision made up of the Appalachian ridge. Appalachian ridge especially the valley region is composed of mountains; the Delaware water gap, the shale and limestone formation in the value as well as the conspicuous dairy cattle and apple orchards. The black bears live in the forested areas of New Jersey or the garden state.

The black bears (Ursus americanus) are among the largest land animals in NJ. In most of their prime habitat, the hardwood forests are mixed and the swamps are dense. The animals mainly prefer forested wetlands. Over the past century, the animal population has been decimated by the indiscriminate killings and the habitat destruction that has seen most of the remaining bears move to the human settlement areas such as the northwestern area of the state (Corzine & Jackson, 2020). Currently, the black bears can be seen in almost all of the 20 other counties in New Jersey

In their environments, black bears play an important role in ecosystems. They disperse seeds that stick to their fur or seeds that they eat and excrete unbroken. These seeds germinate again and become plants that produce more seeds (Corzine & Jackson, 2020). They provide nutrients to plans when they excrete or break twigs that decompose. Both the twigs and the piles are fresh manure to the plants. Sometimes they drag salmon carcasses throughout the forest and in the process fertilizing the forests. Their activities help in keeping the population of deer’s and moose in check thereby creating a self-perpetuating ecosystem (Herrero, 1972).

The organism's evolutionary relationship with other organisms in a phylogenetic tree

The bears have a very complex evolutionary relationship and history. The gene flow in the bears is very common. The bears are not only limited to the polar bear and the brown bears. Their genome analysis indicates a gene flow outside the species pairs. There are gene flows among the Asiatic black bears and their ancestral polar bears, the brown bears as well as the American black bears and this is the main treason for the uncertainties in regards to the reconstruction of the actual bear phylogeny. While these gene flows may have been affected by the geographical distribution of the brown bears among the bear clade. There are external factors that contributed to the phylogenic conflicts (Corzine & Jackson, 2020). There are also other series of complex evolutionary processes that are involved in changing the phylogenetic tree including the speciation processes, reproduction, isolation as well as species divergence that affected the gene flow (Kumar et al., 2017).

Bears can shut down their digestive and excretory system to survive a harsh climate. They have strong bones that can stay for long without losing calcium or becoming weak due to inactivity

Black bears eat ravenously and have a good digestive system that can digestive the massive amounts of food during the summers to help them become fat by accumulating many fatty tissues in their bodies that can protect them and provide them with heat during the cold winters. They have strong shoulders and hands to climb trees or break twigs. They have strong retractable claws for burrowing, and for dragging carcasses. They have string canine for tearing flesh from prays and breaking fruits (Corzine & Jackson, 2020). They have four legs for movement and eating. They can also walk on the soles of their feet and not their toes. The weight can shift towards the back whenever terry walks on their hind legs.

Explain how the organism has evolved physiologically to become suited to its environment

The black bears have evolved over the year. The black bears are not known to hibernate as people put it. The black bears go into torpor by reducing their overall body temperatures as well as they hear rate. In other extreme cases, they can reduce their respiratory rates while some hunker down to survive the harsh climate. The black bears have also developed an increase in body weight and body fat to help them overcome the winters while some reduce their movements than they normally do by moving to the warmest sport and staying put till the weather gets warmer. Their physiological adaptation includes the low surface area to volume ration. They have short legs but have a very stocky build helping them to retain hear by reducing the surface area for loosening hear (Miller, 1985). They also have very small extremities such as ears that are covered in thick fur, very short muzzle.

The black bears just like the polar bears also eat high-fat diets and there adaptation enables them to process fatty foods, build their fatty. Most black bears are good at fishing and can eat the sear blubbers as the blabbers are energy-rich and their organs are adapted to survive on the massive fat they consume. Their body is adapted to eat fat but less protein that means that they do not have to excrete the excessive nitrogen mostly found in protein. By limiting urea excretion, they do no lose water. They are also known to eat snow to replace the water they lose during excretion. Therefore, their fat consumption helps them avoid excretion and conserve energy

Explain how things would change if the organism were to be transplanted to a significantly different environment

Black bears are known to adapt to any environment. They will adapt behaviorally, and physiologically to help them survive in the new environment at the end (Kumar et al., 2017). They can live through cold winters and hot summers by either being very active or remaining dormant for some time. These internal systematic responses to the climatic changes (stimuli) help them maintain their overall homeostasis. It is important to note that behavioral adaptation is both instinctive and learned with the environment (Corzine & Jackson, 2020). For example, when foraging for food, they have, earned to climb trees or create their burrows. The thick layer of the body fat is also another adaptation that hell they survive the colds. The body is made up of more than 4 inches of thick fat to insulate them and store food. In a hot climate, the bears store either consume a lot of food or use the fat in their body, as the seals are not available (Herrero, 1972). Over 50% of the black bears' body weight is made up of fat them helps them float when swimming thus conserve energy that they could use when swimming.

References

Corzine, J., & Jackson, L. (2020). Living with a black bear. Nj.gov. Retrieved 29 June 2020, from https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/bearcountry.pdf.

Herrero, S. (1972). Aspects of Evolution and Adaptation in American Black Bears (Ursus americanus Pallas) and Brown and Grizzly Bears (U. arctos Linné.) of North America. Bears: Their Biology And Management, 2, 221. https://doi.org/10.2307/3872586

Kumar, V., Lammers, F., Bidon, T., Pfenninger, M., Kolter, L., Nilsson, M., & Janke, A. (2017). The evolutionary history of bears is characterized by gene flow across species. Scientific Reports, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46487

Miller, S. (1985). An Observation of Inter-and Intra-Specific Aggression Involving Brown Bear, Black Bear, and Moose in Southcentral Alaska. Journal Of Mammalogy, 66(4), 805-806. https://doi.org/10.2307/1380816