Carkeek Park Trip
Pictured above is a sea star that I found near the tide. Like most of the other ones on the beach, it was idle. According to our lecture notes from before, sea stars are mostly carnivores. However, I can't imagine that they'd be very high on the food chain/food web. I say this because they have a pretty small body size, don't seem to have many defense mechanisms, and aren't very mobile. These factors would probably make them a lower-level consumer (primary, secondary?).
I hadn't been to this park before our trip, so it was cool to see the coast up close. It's been years since I've even gone to a beach! It was interesting to see that we weren't the only school taking a field trip here that day; there were some high school groups doing the same activity as we were. For my marine biology related question, I'd ask: "what happens to the dead/diseased organisms that wind up on the shore?"
Billy! I definitely enjoyed being in a group with you! Our entire group found so many organisms! I agree with you on the starfish, I do not really see them at a high point in the food chain either but I think they are predators?
ReplyDeleteThe sea star in the photo looks like it has sea star wasting syndrome 😷 which might account for its puny size.
ReplyDeleteThat's a super cool picture, as well as a good one. It almost looks like it wants to go back under the pile of seaweed next to it, as if it doesn't want to be seen and wants to go back to sleep. There were lots of sea stars on the beach, so nice picture.
ReplyDelete