Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Winter survival strategies


Predator, originally uploaded by jiihaa.


Larva, originally uploaded by jiihaa.


Ice on winter plants, originally uploaded by jiihaa.


Burrdock, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today was a warmer day, -1 °C to -2 °C, and there were some new things happening in the nature. We don't have snow on the ground, only frost and ice, but looking carefully you noticed that there were little things apparently thriving in these conditions. Small spiders and larva were moving on the ice, perhaps engaged in predator-prey activities. Also plants have various survival strategies for spreading the seeds during the winter, by allowing the wind to transport them or by sticking to the fur of animals for transportation. (Humans are a relatively new transport platform.)

2 comments:

Andreas said...

Nice. I love the spider, #3 and the way you carefully watch your environment.

Juha Haataja said...

A colleague at work commented that spiders have glycerol in their body fluids and tissues, that is why they can move in temperatures a few degrees below 0 °C. Interesting creatures.