Astronomy and Physics
This is the primary reason for the drop in temperature during winter, causing the shallow angle at which sunlight hits the Earth
What is Earth's axial tilt?
Trees convert their liquid sugar into this form for winter storage so their cells don't pull in too much water and burst when it freezes.
What is starch?
Small mammals like voles utilize this "blanket" of snow to trap the Earth’s geothermal heat, staying in a stable 32 F environment.
What is the subnivean zone?
Bears utilize this state of "light sleep" where they maintain a high body temperature to react quickly, unlike the deep sleep of a ground squirrel
What is torpor?
This rule states that humans (and animals) in cold climates evolved shorter, stockier limbs to reduce the amount of surface area that can leak heat
What is Allen's Rule?
Water reaches its maximum density at this specific temperature, causing it to sink to the bottom of a lake and allowing life to survive underneath the ice
What is 4 degrees Celsius?
These type of trees are more likely to be seen in environments far from the equator or at high latitudes, as they tend to be more cold tolerant
What are coniferous trees?
This mathematical concept explains why a small mouse loses heat much faster than a large bear
What is surface area to volume ratio (SA:V) ?
This is the massive energy cost an animal pays in burned body fat every time it wakes up from hibernation mid-winter.
What is the "arousal tax"?
Anthropologists use this term to describe how human traits, like skin tone, change gradually over geography rather than being divided into distinct "races."
What is Clinal variation?
This heat transfer method explains why you would lose body heat 25 times faster in wet clothes than in dry ones
What is conduction OR evaporative cooling
This specialized "scab" layer forms at the base of a leaf to seal the tree's vascular system and prevent water loss before the leaf falls.
What is the abscission layer
This behavior, common in penguins and honeybees, allows a group to reduce their collective surface area to limit heat loss to the wind.
What is social heat retention, huddling
This "biological compass" allows migratory animals to navigate across thousands of miles based on the poles of the earth, even when the sun and stars are hidden by clouds
What is magnetoreception?
In a survival clothing system, the "Base Layer" must have this function
What is moisture wicking?
These long-term orbital variations, including eccentricity, obliquity, and precession, explain the timing of Ice Ages over "Deep Time."
What are Milankovitch Cycles?
This phenomenon occurs when an air bubble blocks a tree's water-conducting vessels after a freeze-thaw cycle, often killing wide-vessel deciduous trees.
What is an embolism?
To prevent "Larder Theft," some Stayers use this strategy of hiding food in thousands of different small locations.
What is scatter hoarding?
Painted Turtles utilize this specialized survival trait to stay alive at the bottom of a frozen pond for months without taking a single breath of oxygen
What is shell buffering / lactic acid buffering with calcium carbonate
This type of food preservation technique uses a chemical to denature proteins, preventing microorganisms from growing and spoiling the food
What is pickling?
2 PART ANSWER:
This shape is formed when water goes from its liquid to solid form, causing it to become less dense, as a result of these type of bonds locking into place
Hexagonal lattice, hydrogen bonds
This type of vegetation, often seen at high elevations right near the tree line, features twisted and deformed branches
What is Krumholtz
In this circulatory trick, warm blood in an artery heats up cold blood in a nearby vein before it returns to the heart, keeping extremities from freezing.
What is counter current heat exchange?
Large animals like moose utilize this physics property to stay active in the winter, their massive bodies take a very long time to gain or lose heat
What is thermal inertia
For an igloo to function properly, it must have this one key feature, for this purpose
A small hole at the top to allow water vapor to escape, preventing ice from forming inside.