Transcript Aquatic animals - Comeni.us

VIRGINIA COLLEGE, IRELAND
NATIVE AQUATIC FLORA AND FAUNA
THE TEAM
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
• MS COLLINS
• COLETTE GREENE
• MS FLYNN
• ZOE SMITH
• MS FAUGHNAN
AQUATIC ANIMALS
IRELAND
WATER HABITAT STUDIED
• LOUGH RAMOR
• LOUGH RAMOR IS LOCATED BEHIND OUR SCHOOL
1st Prize
2nd Prize
3rd Prize
4th Prize
POSTER SKETCHES
NATIVE ANIMALS
• Ireland has 375 fish species in its coastal waters and 40 freshwater species
in its rivers and lakes. Most of these are pelagic.
• There are many aquatic mammals too, such as bottlenose dolphins, killer
whales, and harbour porpoises. Sea turtles are also common off the western
seaboard, and the walrus has also been found around the Irish coasts, but is
very rare with only a handful of sightings.
• The cool, temperate waters around Ireland contain a huge variety of marine
invertebrates. Some of this diversity can be observed in tide pools.
CORMORANT
Identification: Large, mainly all dark seabird, often
stands with wings out stretched drying. Long body
and neck, long strong hooked bill. Dark webbed feet.
Swims low in the water with bill raised. Often seen
inland, unlike the similar looking Shag, where it
breeds in trees. Adult breeding bird is black with a
green, bronze and blue gloss to its plumage, yellow
and white bare flesh at the base of its lower
mandible and a white thigh patch. Cormorant lacks
crest, instead having a sloping forehead which gives
it a wedge shaped profile. Adult in non-breeding
plumage lacks white thigh patch. Juvenile bird has
very pale, even white, underparts and dark brown
upperparts. Sub-adults have a variable amount of
white in the underparts.
WIGEON
Identification: Medium sized, with large rounded
head, small bill and pointed tail. Male - head and
neck chestnut, with creamy-yellow crown and
forehead. Breast pinkish-grey, and the rest of the
body is grey and white with black stern. Female
rufous brown or greyish with various mottling.
Speculum dull, dark.
SNIPE
Identification: A relatively common wader but not
easily seen, unless flushed out of marshy
vegetation, when it typically towers away in a frantic
zig zag fashion. The disproportionately long, straight
bill is easily visible in flight. If you are lucky enough
to see one standing partially or wholly out in the
open (usually at the edge of reeds), you will make
out the series of dark brown, pale buff and black
stripes and bars on the head and body - this
produces a good camouflage effect.
TEAL
Identification: Small duck with short neck.
Males with brown head, striking green patch
which extends from the eye towards the back of
the neck and is thinly bordered yellow. Grey
bodied with horizontal white stripe along the
body, green speculum and creamy-yellow patch
bordered by black on either side of the rump.
Females brown, streaked and mottled dark, with
green speculum.
CURLEW
Identification:
distinctive with
neck and long
greyish brown,
The largest wader - very
long legs, bulky body, long
decurved bill. Fairly uniform
with bold dark streaking all
over. Only likely confusion species is the
smaller Whimbrel, which occurs in spring
and autumn.
GREY HERON
Identification: The grey plumage and stature
of Grey Herons make them unmistakable. It is
a very familiar species being widely distributed
and a year-round resident in Ireland. Single
birds are often flushed when posed
motionlessly at the edge of water bodies,
coiled ready to strike out at unsuspecting prey
with its formidable spear-like bill. It feeds along
the edge of a wide range of wetland habitats
from coastal waters and estuaries to loughs,
streams and marshy ground. They are usually
encountered as solitary birds and sometimes
as a pairs, although if observing breeding
colonies - heronries - numbers can be in the
50s.
MALLARD
Identification: Among the largest of our
ducks (with the exception of Shelduck).
Males with striking green head, yellow
bill, white ring around the necj, grey
underparts, blue speculum, black rump.
Females brown in colour, but with blue
speculum, dark stripe across the eye
and whitish tail sides.
LAPWING
Identification: Distinct black-and-white, pigeon-sized
wader, with wide rounded wings and floppy beats in
flight. Wispy crest extending upwards from back of head
and green/purple irridescence seen at close range.
Pinkish legs.
SWAN
Identification: Similar to Bewick's Swan, but
larger, with longer neck. Yellow and black
bill, with the yellow projecting below the
nostril.
OTTER
• OTTER IS A COMMON NAME FOR A
CARNIVOROUS MAMMAL IN
SUBFAMILY LUTRINAE. THE 13
EXTANT OTTER SPECIES ARE ALL
SEMIAQUATIC OR AQUATIC, WITH
DIETS BASED ON FISH AND
INVERTABRATES. LUTRINAE IS A
BRANCH OF THE WEASEL FAMILY
MUSTEL, WHICH ALSO INCLUDES
WEASALS, MARTENS, MINKS,
POLECATS, EURASIAN AND
AMERICAN BADGERS, HONEY
BADGERS AND WOLVERINES.
WATER SHRIMP
Freshwater shrimp make a good
addition to most aquariums due to their
ability as scavengers. Many freshwater
shrimp species are very good at finding
even the smallest food particle hiding in
the sand and can thereby help you
keep the aquarium clean and the water
quality high.
FROG
The Common Frog (Rana temporaria) is
the only species of frog found in Ireland
and is listed as an internationally
important species. Frogs are protected
under the European Union Habitats
Directive and by the Irish Wildlife Act
NATIVE FLORA IN IRELAND
• IRELAND POSSESSES ALMOST 200,000 HECTARES (490,000 ACRES) OF ACTIVELY GROWING
BOGS AND FENS.
• HIGH RAINFALL- THERE ARE 175 RAIN-DAYS EACH YEAR IN THE WEST, SOUTHWEST AND
NORTHWEST OF IRELAND AND POOR DRAINAGE. THE BOGS FORMED AT THE END OF THE
LAST ICE AGE, ABOUT 10,000 YEARS AGO IN THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS OF IRELAND IN BASINS
OF CALCAREOUS BOULDER CLAY. THESE BECAME LAKES OVERGROWN WITH FEN VEGETATION
AND INFILLED WITH FEN PEAT WHICH CUT OFF THE SURFACE PLANTS FROM MINERAL-RICH
WATER BELOW.
• NUTRIENT-DEMANDING FEN PLANTS WERE THEN REPLACED BY BOG MOSSES AND PLANTS
WHICH COULD SURVIVE ON LOW LEVELS OF NUTRIENTS. THE FEN PEAT BELOW PREVENTED
THE RAINWATER DRAINING AWAY AND THE SPONGE-LIKE BOG MOSS AND PLANTS SOAKED IT
UP.
OPEN WATER HABITATS
• OPEN WATER HABITATS INCLUDE RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, RESERVOIRS, PONDS
AND, UNIQUELY, TURLOUGHS). COMMON SPECIES OF WET PLACES INCLUDE
• COMMON REED, MARSH WILLOWHERB, COMMON MARSH BEDSTRAW, WATER
AVENS, ANGELICA, BROOKLIME, MARSH PENNYWORT, WATER PLANTAIN, MARSH
CINQUEFOIL, MARSH MARIGOLD, WATERMINT, YELLOW WATER LILY, BULRUSH
• AND THE INVASIVE SPECIES CANADIAN PONDWEED.
Marsh Marigold
Common Reed
it is probably one of the most ancient native
plants, surviving the glaciations and flourishing
after the last retreat of the ice, in a landscape
inundated with glacial meltwaters.
they appear in early spring to late summer.
The flowers are visited by a great variety of
insects for pollen and for the nectar.
Where conditions are suitable it can spread at
5 metres or more per year by horizontal
runners, which put down roots at regular
intervals. It can grow in damp ground, in
standing water up to 1 metre or so deep, or
even as a floating mat.
Watermint
Yellow water lily
Water mint occurs in the shallow
margins and channels of streams,
rivers, pools, dikes, ditches, canals,
wet meadows, marshes and fens. If
the plant grows in the water itself,
it rises above the surface of the
water. It generally occurs on mildly
acidic, peaty soils.
This can be such a pretty sight on canals, pools,
lakes and slow-moving, even stagnant but
unpolluted, water. The large heart-shaped/oval
leaves (with their overlapping basal lobes make a
carpet on the water's surface with other leaves
thin, translucent and submerged.
This is the area we did our
study on in September
THANK YOU
THE END