Exploration of a Seagrass Ecosystem

Teacher Packet

This exercise is designed to introduce students to a seagrass ecosystem and the manner in which
scientists collect information to help them understand the structural and functional relationships
of some its important species. The lesson starts with an exploration of the seagrass beds
themselves and builds to include the larger animals and the role they play in the ecosystem.
Some of the key concepts in this lesson are interdependence, the flow of energy in ecosystems,
the important role of predators, and the practice of science (hypothesis generation, data
collection, hypothesis-testing).

The lesson is divided into several main components, each with a video and one or several
activities for the students. The flow of the entire exploration follows the path outlined on the
next page. For background information on scientific research in Shark Bay, the nature of the
ecosystem and its organisms go online to www.sberp.org. Additional information on the bay can
be found at www.sharkbay.org. Please contact us if you have any thoughts on how to improve
this lesson or for additional content that you would like to see in the future.

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Flow chart of the Shark Bay lesson:

Activity 3: Arrange and

graph data; test hypotheses
Expand the lesson #1

Video 1: Video 2: Video 3:

Introduction to Observe the Measuring
Shark Bay habitats seagrasses

Activity 1: Web Activity 2a: Record Activity 2b: Discuss

research on observations of observations;
seagrasses habitats, organisms generate hypotheses

Video 6: The Video 5: Video 4: Wrap

next Deploying fish up and present
assignment traps next challenge

Activity 6:
Play game; Activity 5: Collect Activity 4: Generate
generate data from videos; hypotheses; discuss
hypotheses graph; test hypotheses methods

Video 9:
Video 7: Data Video 8:
Testing top-
collection: Observations;
down effects
dolphins et al. tiger sharks

Activity 7: Graph Activity 8: Activity 9: Test

and test hypotheses Reformulate hypotheses; integrate
hypotheses; understanding of
test ecosystem

Video 11: Video 10:

Wrap up video Ecosystem
change challenge

Activity 10: Integrate

understanding of
ecosystems

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Seagrass Mission

Video 1: Introduction to Shark Bay and seagrasses

This video drops the students right in the action, introduces them to Shark Bay and tells them
why the oceans and seagrass ecosystems are important no matter where they live. The students
are going to be members of the research team, but like all good scientists they need to do some
background research before they get wet.

Play the first part of the video until it gets to the first assignment for the students. When it has
typed out all the assignments, pause the video.

Activity 1: Web research on seagrasses (Student Activity Book p 2)

Goals:
1. Learn to use the web for background research
2. Understand what seagrasses are
3. Determine the threats to seagrasses
4. Generate interest in the organisms of seagrass ecosystems

Once the students have received the assignment from the video its time for them to get to work.
This assignment can be homework or it can be done in class in teams. The students should
answer the Activity 1 questions in their Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project Notebook.
Teams can be assigned individual questions and report back to the class or they can find the
answers to each question and then groups can be asked to report on a single question.

A couple good pages for the students (and more background information on seagrasses) include:
http://www.sharkbay.org (go to the “For Kids” button and Nature Fact Sheets)
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/habitats/seagrass/
http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLspec/Seagrass_Habitat.htm
http://www.bsb.murdoch.edu.au/groups/seagrass/index.html
http://www.sberp.org (go to the Species Fact sheets).

Ask students to answer the following questions:

What are seagrasses? Are they really grasses?

Seagrasses are flowering plants that live underwater. They are not true grasses they
just look like them.

How do seagrasses get their energy?

Seagrasses get their energy from sunlight

How do seagrasses spread and reproduce?

The most common way seagrasses spread is vegetatively by producing underground
stems (rhizomes) with leaves branching up from them. Seagrasse also use sexual
reproduction complete with flowers.
Where do seagrasses live? Why do they live there?

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Seagrasses live in shallow coastal waters where they can get plenty of sunlight for
photosynthesis and temperatures are warm enough. Seagrassess are most common in
the tropics and subtropics – where it is warm – but some are found in cooler waters of
the temperate zone.

What eats seagrasses?

Seagrasses are eaten by everything from small invertebrates (isopods, urchins) to
fishes (especially juvenile parrotfish) and larger grazers like green sea turtles and sea
cows (dugongs and manatees).

Why are seagrass beds important?

They provide food and shelter for many species of invertebrates and fish. Without
seagrasses the coastal oceans of the tropics and subtropics would be more like deserts!

What are the threats to seagrass habitats? Where are they threatened?
Segrasses are threatened by pollution, habitat destruction (dredging), propellers, and
the loss of grazers and predators in their ecosystems.

What do you want to learn about seagrass ecosystems?

There is no correct answer to this one! Send us some of your best answers to this
question so we can develop new lessons or add to our website!

If there is no internet access, print out several of the seagrass information sheets that are
provided in the packet and give them out to teams of students. Have them look through these
sheets and find the information they are asked about.

Once groups have had time to work together to answer all the questions, have group
representatives take turns sharing answers on each point until a complete list is made. Have the
students decide which threats they think are the worst and what they most want to know about
seagrasses and seagrass habitats.

Video 2: Observe the habitats

This scene is meant to help students hone their observation and note-taking skills. The video
introduces students to the three main habitat types – shallow waters, edges of banks, and deep
waters. The edges and “shallow” habitats are both relatively shallow and have quite a bit of
seagrass while there is very little in the deep habitats. The students will see that most of the
animals are found where there is the most seagrass. However, the students should also see that
there is less seagrass as the water gets deeper (and darker) because there is not light for
photosynthesis. I suggest playing the video through twice to let the students get the most out of
it (see Activity 2 Instructions below).

Play the first part of the video where Mike dives in and swims around. Pause the video on the
“Get ready for viewing” page – the activity is about to start! Have students in teams, but make
sure they independently record their observations during the first pass through the video .

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 Activity 2: Record observations of habitats, organisms (Student Activity Book pp 3-6)
Goals:
1. Develop observational and note-taking skills
2. Understand that observation is an important step in the scientific method
3. Practice recording data in tables
4. Practicing graphing data
5. Generate interests in the organisms of seagrass ecosystems
6. Understand that light levels influence seagrasses

Have the students get their notebooks out and tell them to get ready to take notes on what they
see in the video. Tell them that they will watch the video twice and to look for different things
each time. On the first viewing, ask them record notes on 1) the differences in physical
conditions in the different habitats, 2) how much seagrass they see, and 3) what types of seagrass
are in each habitat. After the video, have them draw the seagrasses that they saw. Students can
work in groups of 2-4, but every student should record notes in their notebook during the video;
encourage teams to work together after the video to make sure everything gets recorded. Pause
the video as the assignment screen comes up and give team members time to compare notes and
work together to complete their notebooks.

For the second viewing of the video, give students the Shark Bay Identification Guides. Have
students complete the tables in their notebooks to list the species of seagrasses and animals that
they see. Encourage them to take notes and make drawings to remember what they have seen.
When the assignment screen comes up, give the students time to complete their tables, notes, and
graphs. Next, have them answer the assignment questions as a group (but everybody recording
their answers):
Table 1 answers: Species in shallow, edge, and deep habitats
Shallow Edge Deep
Animals Seagrass/Alg. Animals Seagrass/Alg. Animals Seagrass/Alg.
Yellowtail Posidonia Tuskfish Haladule A couple
trumpeter australis uninervis sparse algaes
Butterfish Amphibolis Cymadocea
antarctica
Striped Sargasso Amphibolis
trumpeter antarctica
Sea snake Fleshy algae
Loggerhead
turtle
Whipray
Wedgefish
(half shark half
ray
Maskray
Butterfish
Cowtail ray
“clams”

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1. Which habitat do you think has the most seagrass? Generate a hypothesis
about where there is the most seagrass? Why do you think this is where there will
be the most seagrass?
There is less and less seagrass as you go deeper. With less light the plants cannot
photosynthesize as easily. Students may also notice strong currents in deep water that
would sweep seagrasses away. Have students frame this as a hypothesis that we will
test with scientific data. Just having a look around isn’t enough!

2. Were the same types of seagrass in each habitat? What were the differences
in the seagrasses of shallow, edge, and deep habitats? Why do you think they
differ in this way?
There are smaller species of seagrass in edge and deep – less light for photosynthesis
and stronger currents would cause something with a large leaf to be swept away.

3. Where were most of the animals? Why do you think you saw this pattern?
Most of the animals were where there was seagrass (except rays that like to bury in the
sand) where they can hide.

4. How would you measure the differences in seagrass communities in the

shallow edge and deep habitats?
Just trying to get the creative juices flowing!

Video 3: Measuring seagrasses

The students will dive underwater with Mike and PhD student Derek Burkholder who will
collect data for the students to use. But Mike and Derek aren’t doing all the work – the students
will have to collect some of the data themselves.

Activity 3: Arrange and graph seagrass data to test hypotheses (Student book pp 7-11)
Goals:
1. Understand how data are collected
2. Practice collecting and recording data
3. Practice calculating average values
4. Practice graphing data
5. Test hypotheses based on observations
6. Understand the importance of teamwork
7. Investigate the importance of replication
8. Possible extension – entering and graphing data in a spreadsheet program

Pause the video when the assignments are finished printing out. Divide the students into teams
of 2-4 students and give each of them a Seagrass Data Packet. Each data packet will include six
pictures of the quadrats we dropped (two from each habitat) and a table of seagrass heights that
Derek measured in each habitat.

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Each group should start out by identifying the species in a quadrat picture and record these at the
bottom of the tables in their notebook. Next, have them count and record the number of grid
cells that each species is found in. They should then calculate the average values for each habitat
and record it in the table in the notebook. They can then graph these data by hand in the
notebook or the lesson can be extended to have students use a spreadsheet program to enter and
graph the data.

Because the number of grid cells that seagrass are found in is not a good measure of how much
seagrass there is, students should calculate percent cover. You can have the students do this
activity or stop them after they do the activity with the number of grid cells and ask them if it is a
good method and what would be better. They should quickly say that it isn’t because it may be
very sparse. For example, in some edge quadrats there is much less seagrass covering the bottom
even though it is in every cell. The easiest alternative is to estimate percent cover using five
levels:

Figure 2. Estimate of seagrass cover using quadrats.

The simplest approach to the graphs is to have students just graph the total amount and cover of
seagrasses. For more advanced applications, you can have them graph each species separately.
For example:

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Next, have the students calculate the mean height of seagrass in each habitat based on the data
they were provided in the Seagrass Data Packet. They can do this by adding up all the numbers
and dividing by 10 or using the AVERAGE function in Excel if you are using a spreadsheet
program. Have them create a graph of seagrass heights in each habitat. Again, you can have
them break it down by species. For more advanced applications, have students use a spreadsheet
to calculate standard deviations.

Figure 2. Example graph for seagrass heights.

Once students have made their graphs, have each group present them to the class and discuss
whether the data support or reject their hypothesis (be sure to stress that they are not proving a
hypothesis true – just rejecting the null hypothesis). It is important that they see the importance
of taking multiple measurements. When you have a small sample size the patterns are not
necessarily reflective of the broader patterns, and one group will have data that do not go along
with the overall trend to illustrate this point. If you want to extend the lesson here, have the
students generate averages for the class data as a whole and graph them then compare their
individual team graphs to the whole classes.

Then, have them think about what other information they would like to gather to know more
about the seagrass ecosystem of Shark Bay. Have them discuss what kind of measurements they
would take to determine whether human changes were influencing seagrass ecosystems (e.g. use
quadrats to measure seagrasses as temperatures change or an ecosystem is cleaned up).

1. What was the best way to estimate the amount of seagrass covering the bottom? Why?
Percent cover is much more accurate – and better still when combined with height
measurements.

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2. Do your data support your hypothesis of where there is the most seagrass? Why or why
not?
Could vary. If a group has a couple quadrats that happened to hit sand in the shallows it might
not

3. Look at the graphs that other groups made. Do the graphs made by the other groups in
your class also support your hypothesis? Why might the graphs differ?
The key here is that when you have small sample sizes chance events can have a big effect on
what you see.

4. Why is it important to take multiple measurements when you are testing a hypothesis?
The more measurements you have the more likely you are to accurately measure something.

5. Did your data support your hypothesis on where seagrasses should be tallest? Why do
you think you observed the pattern of heights you graphed?
Maybe not – if students thought it would be taller in deep water to reach the light it won’t match.
One reason is the currents might pull out tall seagrasses. As we will see later – it might be
because it is getting grazed down in these deeper waters.

6. What kind of measurements would you take to determine if human changes were
influencing a seagrass ecosystem? How would you design an experiment to test whether
people were affecting seagrasses?
The hope is that students will think about using quadrats and percent cover and height
measurements with lots of quadrats during each sampling and done over time.

Extending the lesson: Discuss what types of questions the students could ask about their local
ecosystems using quadrats. Have the students make quadrats out of PVC and string (or other
materials) and then measure local plant communities – even grasses in the playground work
(there is more diversity there than you might expect). Have the students generate hypotheses
before they start measuring – ask them what questions they would like to answer with their
methods or what hypotheses they would like to test.

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Fish Mission

Video 4: Wrapup seagrass mission and pose the next challenge

This short video is a bridge congratulating the students for a job well done in the first mission
and getting them to think about the next one.

Activity 4: Hypothesizing where they fish should be (Student book p 12)

Goals:
1. Generate hypotheses about patterns of fish distribution
2. Discuss sampling design and methods for counting fish

Pause the video on the assignment screen. Give the students several minutes in teams to discuss
the questions posed and write ideas down in their notebooks. Encourage them to look back at
their notes from the first observations they made of the bay and reiterate the scientific method
(observe, generate hypotheses, test hypotheses, modify if needed and start again). Have them
discuss why they think they will see these patterns (more food, more shelter, etc). Ask them if
they remember seeing the fish eating the seagrass. What did the fish do when the camera came
close to them? Ask them to discuss how they would test their hypotheses. This should include
how many samples they would take and how they would measure the number of fish in a habitat
(nets, lines, diver surveys, video cameras are all good ideas).

Video 5: Deploying and retrieving fish traps

This video shows how we collect data on fish populations in Shark Bay and reiterates the
importance of having multiple samples – one camera doesn’t tell us much!

Activity 5: Measuring fish (Student book pp 13-18)

Goals:
1. Learn how to collect data on fish
2. Understand the importance of seagrass for fishes
3. Discuss the importance of replicates
4. Develop an understanding of variability by collecting/graphing data on fish
abundance
5. Develop a clearer understanding of the process of doing science;

Pause the video on the assignment sheet. At this point there are two options: 1) have the
students watch videos from each of the habitats or 2) have students collect data from still images
pulled from the videos. Instructions for each of these options follow:

Option 1: Video analysis

This activity can be done in groups of four or as an entire class during the observation and data
recording portion. You will need to play the three video clips (interior fish trap, edge fish trap,
and deep fish trap). Have a student in charge of the video and another with a stopwatch. Have
the student with the stop watch time 20 seconds and then say “Stop!” The video controller

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should pause the video. Be sure they use their Shark Bay Species Identification Guide and
record each species separately. Two students in each group of four students should be recorders
and two should be observers. One of the recorders is in charge of writing down the counts when
the video is paused. The other records any interesting things that they see (lists of species they
see that are not in the counts during the paused videos; feeding behavior, etc) that won’t be
included in count data. There will be 16 observations of each five minute clip. Once they have
collected the data, have them complete their data tables and make the graphs in their notebooks.
Have the students discuss whether they think this is enough data to draw firm conclusions
(hopefully they say no – it is just five minutes from one spot in each habitat). Next, give them
the data from the Teacher Fish Data Packet that was recorded by students at other schools
working with the Shark Bay team. Have the students graph the averages from the overall data.
Was their dataset representative of the overall patterns?

Option 2: Still image analysis

Handout the Fish Data Packet to the students. Explain that Mike didn’t have the computer
power to send all the videos so he sent single frames captured from each of the videos. Each
packet will have a total of 30 images (ten images from each of three cameras – one in each
habitat). Students should work in teams to count the number of fish in each image and record it
in the table provided in the notebook. Have the class as a whole discuss whether they think they
have enough data to draw firm conclusions (hopefully they say no – it is just a few cameras from
one day). Next, give them the data from the Teacher Fish Data Packet that was recorded by
students at other schools working with the Shark Bay team. Have the students graph the
averages from the overall data. Was their dataset representative of the patterns they saw when
they calculated averages based on data gathered by multiple schools?

Discuss the need for replicates. Do the students think that a single five-minute video segment
adequate for determining differences among the habitats. Ask them which is better: 10 five
minute segments from the same camera on the same day with one camera in each habitat or one
five minute segment from each of ten cameras in each habitat, with each camera places on
different days? Why?

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Dugong and Dolphin Mission

Video 6: Thinking about where dolphins and dugongs should be

This short video is a bridge congratulating the students for a job well done in the first mission
and getting them to think about the next one.

Activity 6: Play Forager! and develop hypotheses about dolphins and dugongs
(Student book pp 19-21)
Goals:
1. Use their own decisions to understand how animals select habitats
2. Understand the relationships between animals and their food
3. Practice developing quantitative hypotheses

Forager game
Before the students try to develop hypotheses about where dugongs and dolphins should be
found, have them play the game FORAGER. This game will help them develop hypotheses that
are more advanced than just where the most animals should be – it will let them use simple math
to make quantitative predictions about how many animals should be in each of two habitats. For
this game, you will need small rewards for the students. I use Hershey’s Kiss candies, but
anything will do. Start out by creating two habitats with the rewards – one with more than the
other. I suggest using a total of ten rewards combined between the two habitats to make the
math easier. Then, tell the students the rules:

1. You will pick students to play the game one at a time.

2. Each student, when selected, must choose one of the two habitats to forage in.
3. Once a student has chosen a habitat, they cannot move
4. Nobody can get a reward (forage) until you say “FORAGE!”
5. When you say “FORAGE” all of the students in a habitat must split the rewards equally
among themselves. No mad scrambles for the food (there are lots of modifications to this
game to simulate competition or predation, but that is for another time).
6. The goal is to get the most rewards possible!

Lets use an example where you put 6 rewards in one habitat and 4 in the other. Since the
students don’t know how many people you will pick before saying “Forage” the first student will
pick the habitat with 6 rewards. The second student should pick the habitat with 4 rewards
because they will get more than splitting the reward in the habitat with 6. Sometimes you might
want to ask the class (or the student) why they make a particular choice. Keep picking students
one at a time until 10 students have chosen habitats (or 5 in small classes), then tell them to
forage.

Ask the students:

1. How many rewards did they get?

2. Which habitat was the “best” to be in at the end? (they are equal – each forager gets the
same).

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 3. Would any forager have liked to switch habitats once 10 foragers were playing? (they
should say no –they would have done worse to switch).
4. How did the proportion of foragers relate to the proportion of food in each habitat? (It is
the same).

This should have students ready to make hypotheses about where the dugongs and dolphins
should be based on their graphs of fish in shallow vs deep habitats and seagrass in shallow vs
deep habitats (we won’t use edge habitats for this part of the lesson). You can tell your class
that animals in the wild looking for food make decisions just like they did trying to get the most
rewards possible. Have the students look at the graphs they made of seagrass and fish in deep
and shallow habitats and come up with quantitative predictions about where the dugongs and
dolphins should be (not just, there should be more in the shallow; They should predict about 3
times as many foraging dolphins and 10 times the number of dugongs foraging in the shallows
because this is the proportion of fish and seagrass in these habitats).

Have the students discuss how they would test their hypotheses. Can they think of ways that
they might study dugongs and dolphins. You can’t catch them. Cameras sitting on the bottom
wouldn’t see them very often. You don’t want to just follow one or two individuals (what if they
are “weird” ones?). When they have come up with some good ideas, roll the video to show
them transects. We’ve done more than 3000 passes along these over the last 12 years!

Extending the lesson: You can do a second round of forager before the students start
developing hypotheses for where the animals in Shark Bay should be found. This time, make
sure that the patch with more rewards has more than twice what is in the other one. For example,
put 8 in one and 2 in the other. This time highlight what the second student does (leaves the
habitat with 2 untouched). This shows why some habitats, even if there is some food there,
might not have any foragers in them.

Video 7: Data collection: dolphins and dugongs

The students now get to see how we collect data on all of the air-breathing animals that live in
the waters of Shark Bay. For more information on these transects you can visit the research
pages of www.sberp.org. In the past 10 years we have driven along enough transects to have
driven around the world at the equator more than once! Each transect is 3.5-5km long and we
have 14 of them set up in deep and shallow habitats around the bay. For each of our studies we
use 800+ passes along these transects – we’ll keep it simple for the kids though.

Activity 7: Testing hypotheses about dolphins and dugongs (Student book pp 22-24)
Goals:
1. Gain experience graphing data
2. Understand the relationships between animals and their food
3. Test hypotheses
4. Learn you don’t “prove” hypotheses – just support them
5. Understand that science is an iterative process
6. Understand that hypotheses are not always supported
7. Reinforce the scientific method and need for modifying hypotheses

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Pause the video after the assignments have been printed out and pass out the Transect Data
Packets. Have the students start with WINTER data. Have them make a graph plotting the
average number of dugongs and dolphins sited per transect in deep and shallow habitats. They
should compare this to their seagrass and fish data. Ask them how it looks? Do they think that
dugongs and dolphins choose where to feed based on the amount of food available to them? For
both species, there is a very good match between the foragers and their food. There is a bit of a
trick question in the notebook – you never “prove” a hypothesis – you just support it.

Have the students graph dugongs and dolphins in SUMMER and compare their results to what
they expected? Do the foragers go where their food is? Have the students come up with
hypotheses why things didn’t work out the way they thought they would? Ask them what they
would do if they were Mike trying to find out why dugongs and dolphins are found in particular
places during particular times. Get them thinking of the scientific method – when you don’t
support your hypothesis go back out and make observations.

Play the video to see what happens.

Extending the lesson: Have students divide the number of dolphins and dugongs in each habitat
and each season by the amount of food in that habitat and season. Have them make a graph of
what they found and discuss the amount of food most animals get in each habitat (equal across
habitats in winter but in summer any dolphin or dugong in deep water is getting less food and
could get more if it moved into the shallows).

Video 8: Observations and tiger shark study

This is a somewhat longer video and is meant to be fun and exciting. It starts with going out to
come up with hypotheses about why dolphins and dugongs might change where they are – and
ignore so much food – in the summer. When it becomes obvious that tiger sharks might be the
reason the video introduces PhD student Katy Cameron and shows how we study sharks.

Activity 8: When are sharks around and where are they? (Student book pp 25-26)
Goals:
1. Understand the relationships between animals and their food
2. Practice developing quantitative hypotheses
3. Understand the impact of predators on their prey (top-down effects)
4. Begin thinking about the role of predators in ecosystems

After seeing Katy catch, tag, and track tiger sharks have the students get out their graphs of
where the animals are and think about what patterns they should see if tiger sharks are the reason
that dolphins and dugongs are not where their food is in the summer. Where should the sharks
spend their time if they are keeping dugongs and dolphins from their food (shallow)? What
times of the year do the students think the sharks should be around (summer)? If you want, you
can have the students go online and search for information on wolves and elk – the interactions
are very similar to tiger sharks and their prey.

Pass out the Tiger Shark Data Packet. Have the students graph the average number of sharks we
catch in summer and winter and the amount of time sharks spend in each habitat? Were their

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hypotheses supported? Have them discuss why any dolphin or dugong would go into shallow
waters in summer (some animals are risk-takers and they get a big food reward if they take the
risk. If more took the risk then the food reward wouldn’t be worth it because it would have to
get split up more ways. Ask the students whether they think tiger sharks are important in the
ecosystem and how or why. They don’t need to know the exact answer now but the idea is to get
them thinking about it.

Video 9: Top-down effects in ecosystems

This video gets us thinking about ecosystems from the top down. We now know that tiger sharks
influences where dugongs, but does this also change the seagrass itself? This video raises this
question and shows Derek Burkholder in action again doing an experiment to find out!

Activity 9: Testing the effects of dugongs on seagrasses (Student book pp 27-30)

Goals:
1. Understand that plant communities are affected by herbivores
2. Gain further experience graphing data
3. Learn that predators can influence whole communities

Once the students have had a chance to watch the exclosures in action, have them discuss what
they think will happen when dugongs are kept out of feeding in an area. You could have them
go to the web and search for experiments like this with deer (search for “deer grazing exclosure”
and there are some sites with good pictures). There is also information on the web that describes
what happens when dugongs feed heavily in particular areas – for example www.sberp.org. But
for dugongs to have a big effect, they have to be there. Have the students look at the number of
dugongs sited on transects in the winter very carefully. How many dugongs are actually there.
Even though there are more in the shallows there are many less than in the summer – based on
this, where do they think Derek’s exclosures will have the biggest impact?

Pass out the Seagrass Exclosure Data Packet. Have them make graphs of percent cover and
seagrass height (like in Mission 1) inside and outside exclosures in shallow and deep habitats.
Do the graphs support the hypothesis? Do dugongs influence the seagrass beds? Do the students
think that tiger sharks are influencing how dugongs impact the seagrass?

Video 10: Ecosystem Change Challenge: Top-down and bottom-up effects in

ecosystems
This video gets us thinking about ecosystems from the top down. We now know that tiger sharks
influences where dugongs feed, but does this also change the seagrass itself? This video raises
this question and shows Derek Burkholder in action again doing an experiment to find out!

Activity 10: Testing the effects of dugongs on seagrasses (Student book pp 30-32)
Goals:
1. Understand the links in a food web.
2. Learn that predators can influence whole communities

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This assignment is meant to get students to put the whole ecosystem together. Have them draw a
food web of Shark Bay based on what they saw in the video. If you want them to go into more
detail, have them go to www.sberp.org to find out more about what each species eats. Ask the
students to draw the food web with no sharks and ask them how dugongs and dolphins would
respond to the loss of tiger sharks – how would they change the way they use habitats? Would
this influence the seagrasses and fish? How?

Next, have the students think about whether these changes would be good or bad for the
ecosystem – it might seem “good” at first, but what happens if dugong populations get too
big . . . seagrass might disappear and then there is no food and shelter for fish and other species
might disappear as well. Have the students go online to learn about what happened to
Yellowstone National Park when wolves disappeared and then were reintroduced. Ask the
students if this seems similar to what is happening in the oceans? Should we be thinking about
how to bring back more sharks in places where they have disappeared? Are predators a good
thing to have in ecosystems?

Thanks for using our Shark Bay lesson! On the following pages are some addition lessons and
activities based on our work in Shark Bay. If you have any comments or ways to improve or
extend the lessons, please email us at [email protected]!

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants OCE0526065 and OCE0745606.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Expand the Lesson #1: Model Building – Create a sea grass bed to reinforce the idea of form
and function and density.
Materials:
- Large plastic meat trays (grocery stores will often donate these)
- Straws: Starbucks has green straws: Pollo Tropical has brown straws --- Use any color
available. These form the base of the seagrass or can be cut and bent to be sea grass blades.
- Construction paper – shades of green and brown. Cut leaf shapes and fold base to fit into
straw
- Scissors: Used scissors to poke holes in the meat trays.
- Twist ties, toothpicks or colored pipecleaners (optional)
Let students use their imaginations in designing the seagrass. Beds can have one or more types
of seagrass, but it is probably wise to limit them to no more than 3-4 types. If you plan to
combine their trays into a large seagrass bed(s), you might standardize the design for each type
of seagrass (Figure 1). The number and density of stems will depend on the students and the
trays size.

Figure 1. Simulation of a seagrass bed using a variety of items to make the seagrass. Twist ties
if available make an excellent Halodule.
 Students work in small groups to create a seagrass bed that can be used with other
modules in this series of lessons.
 Give them mats to which they can attach straws or toothpicks representing one or more
types of seagrass.

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  Have rules for where in their bed different species would be most likely to be found. Set
this up so they think about form and function.
1. Small species like Halodule or Halophilis ovalis prefer open areas of high light.
This species is a favorite of dugongs.
2. Posidonia can withstand strong currents due to its extensive root system, so it can
be on the edge of channels.
3. Amphibolis can be found in many regions of a bed and forms large continuous
mats.
 Have groups show their seagrass beds to the class and describe the percent cover of each
species in the bed. (You will need to think about how to most easily set this up.)
 (Optional) Making of the sea grass can be as simple as pushing “stems” into the bed or
more elaborate if you want to have students make seagrass with different leaf structures.
You could also provide the straws to represent the seagrass already cut into a variety of
sizes for each species and have the students measure the length of the straws and create
frequency histograms for two species.

Expand the Lesson #1 Extension

Students can combine their individual beds into larger beds trying to think about how to organize
the components of the system so plants are in optimal habitat (shallow, deep, edge).
Students could create open areas in the beds and deep water channels. In doing this they should
consider which species would be most apt to colonize these areas.
 Note the patterns that are formed.
 Is the percent cover the same for each region of the bed?
 How might you sample this large bed?
Students could add animals to various regions of their seagrass beds.
Assessment:
 Give students data about the percent cover of two species of seagrass and have them
make a graph that illustrates the data. Then ask them to sketch a seagrass bed that shows
the percent cover of the two species as shown in a graph.
 Have students examine the graphs made earlier and defend their hypotheses based on
their results.
 Write a brief paragraph to describe how the types of observations they would make and
data they might collect if they were exploring a seagrass ecosystem on a planet.
 Considering the patchy nature of a seagrass bed think about the best place to hide if you
are a small animal. Develop a hypothesis and make a prediction about the location you
would expect to find a small animal (fish, shrimp, snail, clam, or snake). (You may want
to let students place animals in the best hiding places in their constructed seagrass beds).

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