Small Animals and Plants of West Lake Park
One day while we were doing our service work at West Lake Park, we took a kayak and paddled all backin the mangroves. We were really close to the trees and the mangroves...and the mud. It looks like all there is in the mud are fiddler crabs. The mud is all dark and mushy and doesn't seem very important. We learned IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT. (click for the BIG story)
In the mud which is wet from fresh and salt water from the sea are all kinds of creatures. Some of them we never saw, but we heard popping sounds. Thatas the Popping shrimp. The sound is loud and the shrimp is less than an inch long. Most of the living things in the mud and water are even smaller.
Here is a story of some of the little things. The pictures were drawn by John K. and Elbert C. who are 8th grade students at our school.
Like the word planet, plankton comes from the Greek root meaning "wanderer." Tiny plants and animals, many too small to see with your eye alone, float in ocean and wetland waters. They have to go wherever the tide pushes them because they are not too strong. Some larger animals are as little as plankton when they are in one stage of life called being a larvae.
Plant plankton form an important part in the ocean and wetland food chain. You can catch plankton by waving a fine-mesh net back and forth under the water. Examine the slime you catch with a microscope or hand lens.
Diatoms are microscopic one-celled plants that live in tiny "glass" shells made of silica. They are almost always golden brown and may be disc or needle-shaped, or linked together in chains. Dinoflagellates are one-celled animals that are be golden brown. They move themselves slowly with neat little flagella that spin around like a helicopter blade. Some are reddish and produce a potentially dangerous poison known as red tide. Foraminiferans and Radiolarians are tiny one-celled animals related to amoebas. Foraminiferans make chalky cells that resemble tiny snails. Radiolarians inhabit "glass" shells, some of which have long spines.
Copepods are tiny crustaceans, the largest of which is about the size of a grain of rice. With there long antennae propelling them, they swim with a jerk motion. Most are transparent bluish white with a red pigment spot.
Comb Jellies are not jellyfish but belong to a separate group that dose not sting. Out of water, they look like shapeless blobs and are quite fragile. They send out their own light, like fireflies, and can make a bay glow in the dark. They are iridescent blue, red, and violet.
Common Northern Comb Jelly Bell shaped, very common on the New England coast in summer. They are usually six-inches
Sea Gooseberry Rounded , with long tentacles. Like other comb jellies, it has a big appetite and even is like a cannaibal eating others like itself. It is a predator, usually feeding on fish eggs and larvae.
Imformation by: "The Nature of Florida" Author: James Kavanagh Ilistrated by: Raymond Leung