Where do you live? Do you live in a city, in the suburbs, in the country, or on a
farm? There are many different places that people live. Similarly, organisms in
nature have many places in which they live. Some may live in the woods, in a
tree, in a pond, on the roots of a plant, on the beach or in the ocean. A habitat
is a place where an organism lives.
Adaptations are characteristics that an animal has in order for it to survive in its
habitat. For example, one adaptation that humans use to survive is lungs. Lungs
allow us to take oxygen out of the air so that our bodies can function. In the
waters around South Caicos, the animals have a wide variety of adaptations
that they use to cope with watery conditions. You may know some of these.
Barracuda have powerful swimming muscles and sharp teeth that allow them to
move swiftly through the water and catch their prey. The sea star is a wonderful
animal that has hundreds (and maybe thousands) of little tube feet that help it to
move onto a clam or mussel and pry it open so that it can eat what is inside the
shell. Have you ever tried to open a live clam with your bare hands?
Even the animals that live on land in South Caicos have special adaptations.
The lizards have special coloring that allows them to blend in so well with their
surroundings that sometimes you can’t see them unless you look hard.
Hummingbirds, whose wings beat at a rate of up to 80 beats per second, have
long beaks that let them dip into trumpet-shaped flowers for nectar. Their
presence also helps to pollinate the flowers. Spiders, like the ones you have at
home, have an incredible adaptation that allows them to spin a web that is used
to trap and store their prey.
As you can see, animals have many ways to survive in their habitats, and there
is a lot to learn about habitats and adaptations. Whenever you see an animal,
think about the special adaptations it has and how it would be for it to live
without those special traits.
Research Update: East Bay
Scott Ethington
Directed Research gives all the students at the School for Field Studies an
opportunity to apply the information we have learned in classes to a real
situation. I’m involved with the directed research of East Bay. East Bay is
about a ten-minute walk from the School for Field Studies, and it is located on
the southeastern side of South Caicos. It is a very large bay which includes
coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, and white sandy beaches. The first step
in this directed research was to assess the bay and find out what was happening
in it. Our research team became familiar with East Bay by walking the sandy
beaches and sketching the bay with colored pencils and large pieces of paper.
In order to create and propose a plan to manage the ecosystem of East Bay,
our research team broke up into smaller groups and concentrated on producing
a big map of the entire area.
The mapping was a lot of fun, but it took longer than we had planned. Our
research team used a transect line and defined the perimeter of the bay using
the global positioning system. After mapping the sandy edge of East Bay, we
mapped the habitats beneath the surface of the water. A group snorkeling
exercise was arranged by our directed research professor and the entire group
swam out into the bay. The group snorkeled in an S-shaped fashion and
recorded everything we saw on the sea floor. Large seagrass beds, giant
anenomes, sponges, conch, and two baby lobsters were the highlights of the
snorkel. With a better understanding of the organisms beneath the surface of
East Bay, our research team can perhaps understand the means necessary to
conserve and to protect such a beautiful area for years to come.
