White-tailed ptarmigan White-tailed ptarmigan The white-tailed ptarmigan ("Lagopus leucura"), also known as the snow quail, is the smallest bird in the grouse family. It is a permanent resident of high altitudes on or above the tree line and is native to Alaska and the mountainous parts of Canada and the western United States. It has also been introduced into the Sierra Nevada in California, the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon and the Uinta Mountains in Utah. Its plumage is cryptic and varies at different times of the year. In the summer it is speckled in gray, brown and white whereas in winter it
Ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean simulation predicts that Arctic surface waters will become undersaturated with aragonite within a decade. The undersaturation of aragonite will cause the shells of organisms which are constructed from aragonite to dissolve. This would have a profound effect on a large variety of marine organisms and has the potential to do devastating damage to keystone species and to the marine food web in the arctic ocean. Laboratory experiments on various marine biota in an elevated CO₂ environment show that changes in aragonite saturation cause substantial changes in overall calcification rates for many species of marine organisms, including coccolithophore, foraminifera, pteropods, mussels,