North Carolina Aquariums at Pine Knoll Shores
Fifth Grade–Ecosystem Scavenger Hunt -ANSWER KEY
As you tour the Aquarium and see exhibits “from the mountains to the sea,” try to find the answers to the clues below!
Mountains
1.Water pollutionkilled off muskies in the early to mid-1900s. Today, the water is cleaner and muskies have been reintroduced.
2. Mountain minnowsare an important part of their habitat because they eat aquatic plants, insects, crustaceans and worms, and are eaten by other fish such as smallmouth bass and trout.
3. Minnows are indicators of the environmental health of a stream.
Piedmont
4. Name three ways humans benefit from man-made lakes and reservoirs.
Store drinking water, generate electric power, help reduce flooding, and provide fishing, boating, and other recreational opportunities.
5. How do fish and other wildlife benefit from man-made lakes and reservoirs?
They provide habitat.
6. Name two of the main problems that humans created for river otters in the early 20th century.
Over-trapping, Pollution, and wetland drainage
7. What do otters eat in the wild?
Fish, snakes, turtles, frogs and crayfish
Marsh Walk
8. Fiddler crabseat tiny bits of detritus and microalgae off grains of sand and mud in the saltmarsh.
9. The most common producer in the salt mash is Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cordgrass).
10. Mudsnails and lugwormsare common decomposers found in the saltmarsh.
11. This consumer swallows their food whole and can ingest prey several times the size of their head. Snakes
Coastal Plains
12. Two major human threats to freshwater turtles are expanding road systemsand motor vehicles.
13. This unusual habitat is home to fish, water snakes, crayfish, frogs and mosquitoes.
Ditches
14. The pumpkinseed fish feeds heavily on mosquito larvae.
15. Tanninsdarken the water in blackwater swamps.
Tidal Waters
16. Nearly 95 percentof commercially important fish and shellfish depend on salt marshes for food or shelter during some part of their lives.
17. An adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallonsof water per day.
18. List three human created dangers that sea turtles may face.
Plastic pollution
Entanglement
Ingestion of plastics
19. List three ways you can help sea turtles.
Reduce use of plastics
Pick up trash/ don’t litter
Turn lights off at the beach during nesting season
Keep chairs, umbrellas and tents off the beach at night
Ocean
20. These man-made structures are the basis for many large artificial reefs in North Carolina.
Shipwrecks
21. If this top predator became extinct, the ecology of the world’s oceans would be forever changed. Sharks
22. The lionfish may have appeared in our waters from ballast waterfrom freighters or from releases by aquarium hobbyists.
23. Lion’s manesare the world’s largest jellies. Although, they can sting people not every jelly can. By-the-Wind Sailorshave nematocysts that are too weak to pierce human skin.
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