ByMayte Santos & Jolie Fox

Fall 2009

Come on with us and explore our home, the aquatic biome! What we love most about where we live are the beautiful colors and marine life surrounding us. For example, the rainbow colored coral reefs, the brightly colored tropical fish, the sparkling greens and blues of the ocean water is all eye candy.We are crabs therefore we live on the ocean floor. You will learn about what we see, eat, and do. You will also learn about what our shelter looks like and how chilly it gets here. There are two parts of the Aquatic Biome; fresh water and marine. We live in the ocean. We don’t like it when people go scuba diving or do other things that disturb our home. Fishermen can also hurt our home with their nets, lines and hooks but oil spills from tankers are the worst invasion of our home.

The Aquatic Biome covers about 75% of the Earth’s surface. It is made up of coral reefs, estuaries, lakes and ponds, wetlands, rivers and the ocean.

Coral Reef Ocean

Estuary Wetlands

The Connecticut River

Geographical CharacteristicsHere on the ocean floor where we live there are many beautiful things to see. We are crabs moving about our under water world. It looks like a magical, water filled forest. There are coral reefs, rocks, sand and seaweed. When the seaweed teepees the coral reefs it looks like a jungle. Inside the coral reefs there are many animals such as jellyfish, clams, sponges, octopi, shrimp, and crabs. There are many sea animals in the ocean. But we have to keep our eyes out because many of these animals are dangerous as we are small and relatively defenseless crabs. Globs of greenish black seaweed and phytoplankton floats around in the middle of the ocean where we share our home with sea turtles . Sea turtles are very interesting to watch because it looks like the sea turtle is flying under water with each stroke propelling them a long way. This is what it looks like from our point of view living.

ClimateThis shows the ocean surface temperature August 6-11, 2001

Cold temperatures are pink to purple, moderate in aqua to green and warm temperatures in yellow to red.

The surface water of oceans changes greatly with latitude. Water in the polar seas (high latitude) can be as cold as 28 °F. Ocean water in the Persian Gulf (low latitude) can be as warm as 96.8 °F. The average temperature for the ocean surface waters is about 62.6°F.

“Mmmm,” we just finished our mid-day meal – a large shrimp with a side of mollusks. Time for dessert. Whoosh! Just devoured a claw full of algae. This is a regular meal for us, our favorite food. As a crab we eat mostly shrimp and other shellfish but we also eat dead animals that die and fall to the bottom of the ocean. To us it is like our meal is waiting for us at the bottom of the ocean. But you have to remember we are not the only sea critters that get their food when they need it. For example the Atlantic salmon, and the Greenland halibut eat us and other crustaceans as well.

To survive in the ocean we have an outer shell that is very hard and protects our soft body underneath. We also have sharp claws that we use to hunt for food and to try to defend ourselves. As a crab it is hard to survive because we are small and not very strong. Also because many of the other sea critters and animals are our predators. One other predator we have is humans. They go “crabbing” and take us up to land to be cooked in their homes or restaurants. Also if a ship should sink it will crush us.

Our shelter is a piece of coral or a rocky reef. It is hard enough to protect us during the night. We also have our shell that we can curl up into. When we grow out of our shell we go hunting for another one to protect us.

From the harsh open ocean

To the rainbow hued life below the surface

Beautiful and extraordinary

Glorious but dangerous

Cold as a freezer warm as a sauna

Magnificent

It covers 75% of the Earth’s surface.