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The floating jelly fish heads up as the seahorse takes a rest in the weeds. The dirt on the side is leading to a beach where people can swim and play. The shrimp is crawling up the sand to get a better view. Where should it swim, where should it go? The pipe fish lays very low. It wants to blend into the ground. Wiggling and swimming, resting and floating. After the poor brine shrimp are eaten, happiness returns to the sea. |
Habitats
The children learned that there are three layers or habitats in the Hudson River: Benthos, Water Column and Nektonic. Within each habitat live the plants and animals that are dependent upon each other for food, oxygen and all the things these organisms need to survive within the Hudson River Ecosystem.
Niches
They also learned that the animals had their niche, contribution or job to do within their habitat. They were either detritivores, herbivores, or predators. Detritivores are decomposers, feeding on dead plants and animals. Herbivores are plant eaters. Predators eat other animals. Omnivores eat everything: plants and animals, both dead and alive.
The bottom dwellers, or Benthic Organisms, like pipe fish, crabs, shrimp and snails, crawl along the riverbed, searching for food. Many of these animals are detritivores, or decomposers. They eat the dead plants and animals that fall to the river's bottom and decompose them, breaking them up into the minerals and nutrients that are then released for the plants and animals of the river to use. Some of these animals, like the Blue Crab, are omnivores, eating both plants and animals, dead and alive. Some, like the snails and worms, are herbivores, feeding on the plants such as phytoplankton, algae and seaweed floating in the water column.
The drifting animals, or the Water Column Organisms, like comb jellies, jelly fish, zooplankten and baby fish, are carried by the river currents, upstream and down. Many of these animals are small predators feeding on each other. Many of them are herbivores, feeding on the phytoplankton, or tiny plants, floating in the water column.
The large predators are free swimming or Nektonic Organisms, like the large striped bass, white perch and squid, which are powerful enough to swim in any direction they want, upstream or down and against the powerful currents.
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River Study