Coastal species adaptations, worksheets and images
Summary
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Coastal habitats are challenging because organisms must cope with salt water, changing tides that can leave them exposed and dry, moving water, predators, and limited feeding opportunities. The material provides examples from the New Forest and Lymington-Keyhaven area, describing how different species survive. Birds such as turnstones, redshanks, oystercatchers, little egrets, and cormorants use specialized beaks or diving ability to find food on shores and in shallow water. Seaweeds use holdfasts, pigments, tough fronds, air bladders, or slimy coatings to attach to rocks, capture light, and reduce drying at low tide. Shore animals such as barnacles, limpets, topshells, crabs, and anemones rely on shells, plates, strong attachment, temperature tolerance, or symbiosis. It also outlines saline lagoons and saltmarshes as specialized, erosion-prone coastal habitats, and notes plants like glasswort and yellow-horned poppy that tolerate salt spray but vary in flooding tolerance.
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Coastal Adaptations
Plants and animals that live on the coast need to be able to survive in difficult conditions.
Some of them are:
- Living in salty water
- Being covered / uncovered by the tide (drying out)
- Being able to hide /escape from predators
- Finding food
- Staying in a safe place as the tide and water move.
Habitat:
Name of species:
Adaptations (How does it manage to survive on the coast):
Your Name:
Turnstones
- Feeds on insects, molluscs and crustaceans hiding under stones and seaweed.
- Can be seen in groups foraging on rocky and sandy shores of the New Forest.
Turnstones
Red seaweed
- Seaweeds do not have roots like terrestrial plants, but have ‘holdfasts’ instead to attach themselves to rocks.
- Red seaweeds contain a pigment that allow them to absorb light in low light conditions and can therefore be found lower down the shore.
Red seaweed
Little egret
- Originally from the Mediterranean region, can now be found breeding on the south coast of the UK.
- Uses it’s spear-like beak to feed on fish.
Little egret
Snakelocks anemone
- Plant-like but actually an animal attached to rocks.
- Has a symbiotic relationship with an algae which requires light to photosynthesis, and so usually found in shallow waters.
- Prefers warmer, sunlit waters.
Snakelocks anemone
Purple topshell
- Typically a southern warm water species.
- Ranges across the shore from the upper to lower.
- Lives inside a single, spiral shell made from calcium carbonate, which helps protects it from predation.
Purple topshell
Shore crab
- Lives in the sea and on the shore, and can survive in temperatures from 0 - 30°C.
- Carnivorous - likes to eat anything alive or dead including sea shells and fish.
- Has an exoskeleton and so has to moult in order to grow - during moulting it has a soft body.
Shore crab
Yellow-horned poppy
- A rare species found only on sheltered, shingle beaches.
- Has tough, waxy leaves to avoid drying out.
- Every year the above ground parts of the plant die back and the underground parts are left to survive every winter - all that remains visible is a small rosette.
- Can tolerate salt spray, but not lots of covering from salt water.
Yellow-horned poppy
Saline lagoons
- Exist in shallow ditches behind the Lymington-Keyhaven sea wall.
- Salinity in the lagoons vary between fresh water and sea water, and forms a specialised habitat.
- The lagoons support its own distinctive plants and animals, some of which are only found in this environment.
Saline lagoons
Redshank
- Feeds on insects, molluscs and crustaceans.
- Breed on heathland in the New Forest.
- Young have soft beaks and feed on the edge of pools on the heath.
Redshank
Offshore saltmarsh
- Made up of plants and grasses growing on mudflats.
- The specialised plants survive on the coastal fringe and can tolerate salt spray, and some covering from salt water.
- Exposed mudflat are vulnerable to erosion from waves.
- The marshes of Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve are backed by a seawall.
Offshore saltmarsh
Solitary mining bee
- Live in burrows on soft cliffs.
- They need warm, sunny exposures and get shaded out when cliffs get over grown by scrub.
- More erosion will create more habitats for the bees.
Solitary mining bee
Glasswort
- Common plant found only on the fringe of saltmarshes.
- Would be threatened by storms and erosion of the marsh.
- Can tolerate salt spray, and some covering from salt water.
Glasswort
Barnacles
- Attach themselves permanently to a hard surface in shallow and tidal waters.
- Feed by drawing in plankton and small particles in the water using their hairy legs.
- Lives inside calcium carbonate plates of shell, which they can close to stop water loss and protect against predation.
Barnacles
Tortoiseshell limpet
- Found around the UK coast, but not south beyond the Humber (east coast) or Liverpool (west).
- Found on the lower shore attached to hard surfaces, and forage on algae when covered by the tide.
Tortoiseshell limpet
Photo: Nova Mieszkowska/MarClim. http://www.marlin.ac.uk/shore_thing/creature/April2007.htm
Atlantic cod
- Breeds in very cold water during late winter / early spring, when the sea temperature is at its lowest.
- Fish may find it harder to breathe if oxygen becomes difficult to extract in acidic waters.
- Fully marine species living in the sea.
Atlantic cod
Photo: Wikimedia public domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atlantic_cod.jpg
Oystercatcher
- Uses its long, strong beak to feed on cockles and mussels on the shore.
- Nests in scrapes on the ground often close to the sea edge, such as on the offshore marshes or shingle banks.
Green seaweed
- Large surface area of the fronds for maximum sunlight - photosynthesise effectively.
- Tough fronds - help prevent water loss through transpiration – important at low tide.
Green seaweed
Brown seaweed
- Bladders help the frinds spread out and float for maximum sunlight
- Mucilaginous (slime) coating to reduces drying out at low tide
Brown seaweed
Cormorant
- Able to swim underwater for long distances at great speed (use webbed feet and wings for propulsion and tail as a rudder).
- Feathers less able to trap air making the bird less buoyant – so it can dive for food.
- Cormorants have to dry their wings by holding them out when standing.
Cormorant
