1. Use this ‘backdrop’ to provide a virtual monopile and surroundings, showing the different habitat types projected on the classroom wall. Alternatively, draw a large picture that includes a monopile and the different habitats found around it.
Begin by discussing with the class what the different environmental conditions may be in each of the habitats shown and perhaps how plants and animals may need to be adapted to live there.
Share the printed cards among the class and ask them to pin the species on the turbine! The cards each depict a different species, and have clues as to which habitat it lives in. The children take turns to place a species card in the suitable habitat.

2. After the activity, show this slide and discuss with the class the different species found at different levels of the food chain.
It is best to start with organisms low down in the food web (i.e. those which are preyed upon e.g. phytoplankton, zooplankton).
(Note: Plankton are any organism transported through the seas by currents. They are usually small but can include jellyfish which can be very large)
1. Phytoplankton
Like grass and other plants on land, phytoplankton is the primary producer in the sea. It forms the basis of almost all marine food webs. Phytoplankton produce 50% of the oxygen in the air that we breathe.
2. Zooplankton
Zooplankton feed on phytoplankton. They can be tiny animals and the larvae of fish, crabs, lobsters, starfish and other larger animals.
3. Sand eel
Sand eels dart into the seabed to avoid danger. They feed on tiny animals (zooplankton).
4. Basking shark
The basking shark is the second largest fish in the sea reaching lengths of 10 meters (33 feet), but the average size is 7-9 meters. They can weigh up to 4 tons. They filter feed on plankton using bristly gill rakers. Basking sharks are at the top of the food web as they don’t have any natural predators in our waters.
The intertidal (close-up on the right of the slide) is a special case that needs some explanation. Tides rise and fall twice a day, and the radical change in conditions make the intertidal a challenging place for marine organisms to inhabit. Plants and animals that can adapt have an advantage in competing for space, and can evade fully marine predators. Many marine organisms (crabs, sea urchins etc.) have a larval life stage that drifts in the plankton. If the larvae live a long time, they can travel and disperse large distances (a bit like dandelion seeds blowing in the air) .
Close to the high tide mark, organisms attached to the tower are out of the water for all but a couple of hours a day. Near the lower intertidal, organisms attached to the tower are only out of the water for a couple of hours a day.
Which part of the intertidal is the harsher environment for a marine organism?
How do intertidal (shoreline) organisms get to the middle of the sea in the first place?
Why would a marine organism adapt to live out of water for part of the time?
3. Mussels
Mussels are filter feeders, filtering out plankton from the water. They are eaten by birds, crabs, sea snails and starfish.
4. Starfish
Starfish have thousands of tube feet which they use to stick to surfaces and crawl around. They pull mussel shells apart and squeeze their stomach in through the gap. The mussel is digested in its own shell! Starfish cannot survive long out of water and must retreat with the falling tide.
5. Barnacles
A barnacle is a crustacean (same group as crab) that has stuck its head to a hard surface and waves its legs in the water to filter out food. The larvae settle on any suitable surface and once stuck, the barnacle is there for life.
6. The sea slug is adapted to only eat barnacles. Sea slugs cannot survive long out of water and must retreat with the falling tide.
Edible crab
Hides in crevices or digs burrows in the sea bed. The rock pile left at the base of the monopile helps prevent sand being scoured away and makes an ideal habitat for crabs.
8. Hermit crab
Hermit crabs are scavengers meaning they will eat any plant or dead animal they come across they also use the shells of dead snails to protect their own soft bodies.
9. Venus clam
A filter-feeding bivalve (two parts to its shell) that burrows in the sandy seabed. It has long tubes called siphons through which it filters water from above.
10. Plaice
A flat fish that feeds on crustaceans, worms and molluscs that live in or on the seabed.
11. Dead man’s fingers
A soft coral made up of a colony of animals. Like sea anemones, dead man’s fingers feed on small animals using stinging tentacles.
12. Pouting
Pouting live in shoals in open water around rocks, wrecks or other structures. They feed on small animals.
13. Dulse
A red alga (seaweed) that can live above the low tide mark as it can survive out of the water for a short time.
14. Dolphin
Dolphins live in open water. They have good eyesight but can also ‘see’ underwater and hunt by making sounds and interpreting the echoes (echo location). Dolphins are at the top of the food web.