Sea Turtles Matter:
Their Impact on the Ecosystem
Their Impact on the Ecosystem
Intended grade level: Kindergarten
Introduction:
Although, Sea turtles may not be seen as critical inhabitants of the marine and beach ecosystems, they actually play a more vital role than the average citizen may think. Sea turtles have lived in the world’s oceans for millions of years, and are a critical necessity to the ecosystem they inhabit. They inhabit arctic and tropical waters across the globe. There are seven different species of sea turtles, they include: loggerhead, green turtle, leatherback, hawksbill, kemp’s ridley, olive ridley, and the flatback. The need for sea turtles in our oceans is crucial, here are a few ways how, according to E.G Wilson, K.L Miller, D. Allison, and M. Magliocca’s article Why HealthyBRCA1 Oceans Need Sea Turtles: The Importance of Sea Turtles To Marine Ecosystems. Sea turtles increase the productivity and nutrient content of seagrass blades as they graze. They also allow other species such as coral, to colonize and grow, by removing sponges from reefs. When sea turtles lay their eggs, they directly and indirectly affect the vegetation and stability of sandy shore lines by supplying high nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium to the sand.
Sea turtle eggs also supply a good food source for predators, which in turn, redistributes nutrients among the dunes through their feces. Sea turtles also play a pivotal role in balancing the food web; through their consumption of jellyfish, supplying food for fish and shrimp, and leaving their eggs on beaches for predators like ants, crabs, rats, and racoons. Over one hundred different species have been identified to rely on sea turtles as a place to call home. Their shells provide habitat for columbus crabs, plants, and crustaceans. Their shells have even been known to act as a safe haven for sea-birds.
Critical Thinking Questions to consider:
- Are sea turtles more important to the marine ecosystem than we tend to think?
- What will happen if sea turtles became completely extinct?
- How would our marine ecosystems be affected?
- Would the effects be substantial?
Video:
Impacts on Beaches/
Marine Life:
Sea turtles play a large role on the beaches and dunes in the world. Many beaches do not receive a lot of nutrients and sea turtles help keep the little vegetation that is there alive. Sea turtles use beaches to lay their eggs. The quantity of eggs layed range, but the average is 100 eggs in one single nest and they lay between 3 and 7 nests in the summer season. The Sea Turtle Conservatory stated that in the East coast of Florida there are over 150,000 pounds of eggs in the sand. Not every egg will hatch. The unhatched eggs, nests, trapped turtles, and shells will give nutrients to the beaches.
Vegetation:
Vegetation on the beaches and dunes are able to grow stronger due to turtle eggs. As vegetation improves and receives adequate nutrients, the whole beach ecosystem does better. Plants and roots help keep beaches from eroding and also keeps the sand in the dunes. Since the population of sea turtles is declining, there is less nutrients and vegetation in the dunes and on the beaches. If we lose the sea turtles, we will slowly lose the beaches and dunes we use daily. We need to come up with many different ideas to keep the sea turtles alive, so we can keep this ecosystem healthy and growing. What are some ideas yourself and your students can come up with to save the sea turtles? This is a great idea topic to have your students start coming up with ideas. They can create tools to save them, create awareness posters, and so on. They can be as creative as they want to be and you might be surprised with what they come up with!
Sea Turtles Part in the Ecosystem:
Sea turtles play a large role in the marine ecosystem as well. One part of the sea turtles diet is jellyfish. When there are normal levels of sea turtles, they eat enough jellyfish to prevent there from being an overpopulation of jellyfish. This is important to keep the ecosystem balanced and to keep large amounts of jellyfish from disturbing fisheries and maritime activities. Another thing that sea turtles eat is sea grass. When sea turtles graze sea grass beds, the beds are more productive than when sea turtles don’t. Sponges are another aspect of sea turtles diet that has a large effect on other parts of the ecosystem. When sea turtles eat sponges they keep the population under control and keep the sponges from out-competing slow growing corals. If sea turtles went extinct the marine ecosystem would change drastically. The animals that rely on seagrass beds and coral reefs would see a decline in their population. Many of those species are ones that humans harvest, so we would be affected by the extinction of sea turtles as well.
Critical Thinking Questions to Consider:
- How would the sea turtles extinction affect the food chain?
- What do you think sea turtles contribute to in the ecosystem?
- What would happen to our beaches and dunes if sea turtles went extinct or what would happen if there is an overpopulation insead?
Video:
Sea Turtles and the Food Web
Sea Turtles and their importance to the food web
Sea turtles serve as both, consumers and producers in the food web. Meaning, they are important in more ways than one. Without the sea turtle as a producer, many sea animals will be left hungry or in need to find other sources of food. If sea turtles are not present to consume the foods that are apart of their diet, for example, jellyfish an overproduction of such animals can occur. According to E.G Wilson, et.all, article Why HealthyBRCA1 Oceans Need Sea Turtles: The Importance of Sea Turtles To Marine Ecosystems, one sea turtle can eat up to 440 lbs of jellyfish per day.Maintaining a balanced food web for the marine ecosystem is extremely important, not only for the animals that inhabit the marine but for humans as well.
Effects on the food web/chain with the extinction of the Sea Turtle
Sea Turtles are currently considered vulnerable, some even endangered, including the loggerback, the green turtle and the leatherback. Such vulnerability endangerment is heavily due to overfishing and climate control. Sea turtles are often fishers bycatch-- a non-targeted species-- getting caught in fishing gear and nets. This unfortunate mistake causes sea turtles to drown, because they are unable to reach surface to breathe. The endangerment of these meek, yet special animal have significant impact on the marine life food chain/food web.
The food chain would be affected in many ways if sea turtles were to become extinct.
Without sea turtle eggs present on the beaches, dune vegetation would lose vital nutrients, allowing beaches to simply wash away. The extinction of sea turtles would also cause major declines in all the species that depend on them to maintain the health of seagrass beds and the coral reefs. Some of these species include: a number of fish, crabs, sea stars, and shrimp.
How Sea Turtles aid in the survival of other marine life animals:
The extinction of sea turtles would also cause major declines in all the species that depend on them to maintain the health of seagrass beds and the coral reefs. Some of these species include: a number of fish, crabs, sea stars, and shrimp.
Sea turtles also serve as a safe means of mass transit for hundreds of species, including fish, small crabs, and even birds! How would your daily life and/or the lives of others be impacted without mass transportation? (i.e. Buses, vans, airplanes, trains, ships)
Critical Thinking Questions to Consider:
- In what ways might the stability of the ocean’s food web and the lives of human beings be effected by an overpopulation of jellyfish?
- What are some things that could happen to the animals that the sea turtles provide transportation to, if they become extinct?
- If sea turtles are not present to maintain the health of seagrass and the coral reef, how could human beings be affected by this?
Essential Vocabulary:
- Endangered
- Overfishing
- Vulnerable
- Food web
- Bycatch
Usefulness to Classroom Teachers:
The topic of Sea Turtles is a multidisciplinary topic and can be connected to the K-8 curriculum in a number of ways. The information above can be used in math, science, ELA, and even art! To prove this, a team of future elementary teachers have put their beliefs to the test, and used the learning about Sea Turtles to connect to the Kindergarten curriculum.
The following lesson plan was created and implemented in a Kindergarten classroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We created this lesson and spaced it out into three class sessions due to not enough classroom time. It is a 90 minute lesson in total.
Lesson : Sea Turtles in the Ecosystem
Objectives: K-LS1-1 Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals need to survive.
K-ESS2-2 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals can change the environment to meet their needs.
K-ESS3-1 Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals and the places they live.
Introduction:
Introduce sea turtles. Start the lesson by asking students about sea turtles.
Possible Questions you can ask your students:
-What is a sea turtle?
-Do any of you own a turtles?
-Where do they live?
-What do they eat?
-What does extinction mean?
-Why are they important?
(Asking questions will help students to start thinking about sea turtles and prepare them for the rest of the lesson.)
Watch the video to help continue the thought process about sea turtles. After watching the video, you can ask them what they saw in the clip to help review the clip.
Possible Questions you can ask your students:
-What do sea turtles eat?
-Where do sea turtles lay their eggs?
-Where do sea turtles live?
-Can sea turtles live in the water forever?
-How big are sea turtles?
-What makes sea turtles sick?
Body:
Powerpoint: This is where we had the main focus on our lesson. We created a powerpoint so it was easier for the children to grasp ideas. We covered all objectives listed in the lesson plan in this section. These are the topics we talked about in the presentation:
-What a turtle is.
-How many sea turtles are there in the world.
-What they eat.
-What do turtles eat that they shouldn’t eat.
-Patterns and Shapes on each turtle’s shell.
-Where they lay their eggs.
-Beaches and dunes relating to sea turtles.
-Where they live.
-How they help the ecosystem.
-How to save the sea turtles.
Classroom Book: Read One Tiny Turtle By: Nicole Davies.
This book is informational and also detailed about all the stages of life for a female sea turtle. After reading the story. You can ask and answer questions to help the students recollect information.
Possible Questions you can ask your students:
-Where does the sea turtles lay their eggs?
-Where do sea turtles live when they first move out to sea?
-What did this sea turtle eat to survive?
-Why didn’t many eggs survive?
-How many sea turtles made it into the ocean?
Art Project:
Sea Turtles in the Ocean: The first thing the students will do is create a water scene with watercolor paints. We had our art teacher teach them how to use watercolor paints. They will create a water scene during one art class session. The paper needs to be dry to complete the whole process. The second step is to create a turtle. The students will use a template made by the teacher that they will be able to use to help trace a shape of the turtle. They will trace it on a green sheet of paper. Students will add shapes and designs to their turtle that they made (they have examples of the shapes and designs on turtles due to the powerpoint aspect of this lesson). Once they have completed this step they will cut out their turtle art work and paste it to their ocean watercolor. They will use crayon to create coral and other things in the ocean to complete their work. Their work can be hung up in the classroom, hallway or brought home so they can talk about sea turtles to their friends, family, and peers.
Conclusion:
Complete another review for students about sea turtles. Have the students show their art work to peers as a whole group and have them tell one thing that they learned about in this lesson regarding sea turtles. Also ask them what else they want to know about sea turtles. If they have questions on things you have went over you can go over it again. If they have new questions this is a time to tell them how they can research more about this topic and how they can help the sea turtles.
End of Lesson
Conclusion:
As you can see, sea turtles make a huge impact on our ecosystems. They play a large part in the sea and also land masses around the world. The great thing about this topic is that there are so many different ways you can use sea turtles in your classroom as you read about in our post. We can work together to create awareness and a healthy environment to keep the sea turtles alive. This is a great lesson to teach children about our ecosystems and how they can make a difference in their community in advocating and saving sea turtles. We have learned a lot while researching sea turtles and we hope you create the passion in your students like we have during this lesson.
Sources:
Aun, Lim Puay. "What Happens to the Environment If Turtles Became Extinct?" Turtle Conservation Society RSS. Turtle Conservation Society, 26 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
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