Marine Biology

Thermoregulation

     Marine mammals are well adapted to live in the water. While pinnipeds, sea otters and polar bears are amphibious (able to live on land and in the water), sirenians and cetaceans spend all their time entirely in the water.

       Keeping a constant body temperature is the most serious challenge facing warm-blooded mammals in an aquatic (watery) environment. Most marine mammals have an insulating layer of fat called blubber that keeps their bodies warm and buoyant. Blubber is rich in lipids (fats or fatty material that cannot dissolve in water) and stores large amounts of energy. Sea otters keep their body temperature constant with a dense (thick) layer of fur that traps a layer of air next to the skin so that their skin never gets wet. Polar bears and some pinnipeds have a thick layer of fur and a blubber layer.

        Another way marine mammals control their body temperature is by controlling their blood flow in a process called vasodilation. During vasodilation, blood flow increases to and from peripheral vessels near the surface of the flippers, flukes, and fins. Countercurrent heat exchange allows cold blood returning to the body core to be warmed up by exhanging heat with arteries going to the periphery (flukes and flippers).