The Wood Frogs Adaptation

Henry Fountain. “Why So Cold? Climate Change May Be Part of the Answer.” 3 January 2018. 9 January 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/climate/cold-climate-change.html
The relationship between climate change and cold spells is not fully clear. The Arctic is not as cold as it used to be yet North America is still gripping with bitter cold. There are many other factors involved and these might be the cause of the extreme weather patterns being experienced. The influence of a particularly cold spell cannot be directly attributed to climate change mainly because cold snaps have occurred throughout history. There has been a warming trend all year round and this should result in warmer winters. However, the opposite has been occurring with winters becoming colder. The only explanation that scientists have is that cold air moving east and colliding with warm air from the Atlantic Ocean causes a bomb cyclone, which results in the formation of snow. This explains why some of the Northeast has been experiencing heavy snow recently, that has resulted in an increase in cold temperatures. (152)
The Wood Frog
The wood frog is able to survive months of hibernation in winter with much of its body being frozen and its heart stops beating. The wood frog almost completely shuts down its body and it only becomes active again when warmer temperatures arrive. The animal's range covers most of Canada and extends to Alaska and into the northeastern United States. The wood frog mainly lives in woods as suggested by their name. Most frogs will bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of a pond, lake or another water body, which stops the animal from freezing during hibernation. However, for the wood frog, as winter approaches it buries itself in a shallow burrow or land. This leads to the animal freezing because it has little insulation from the cold. Causing its heart to stop beating, lungs and other organs to stop working and most of the water in the body freezes including the blood (Larson et al.). In order to survive the winter, the frog's lungs will produce large amounts of glucose as winter approaches, which is transported by the blood to the animal's cells where it acts as an antifreeze. The high glucose concentration in the cells prevents their interior from freezing when the temperature drops.


References

Henry Fountain. “Why So Cold? Climate Change May Be Part of the Answer.” 3 January 2018. 9 January 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/climate/cold-climate-change.html
Larson, Don J, et al. "Wood Frog Adaptations to Overwintering in Alaska: New Limits to Freezing Tolerance." Journal of Experimental Biology 217.12 (2014): 2193-200. Print.