Professional Documents
Culture Documents
9
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Overview
Planet Earth is a BBC production with five episodes in the first series (episodes one through
five) and six episodes in the second series (episodes six through eleven). Each episode
examines a specific environment, focussing on key species or relationships in each habitat;
the challenges they face; the behaviours they exhibit and the adaptations that enable them to
survive. Recent advances in photography are used to achieve some spectacular first sights
in particular, stabilised aerial photography gives us remarkable views of migrating animals
and the techniques used by their predators to hunt them.
As the series examines pristine environments where possible, they are often extreme.
These are the parts of the world where few humans have chosen to live as the climate and
landscape is too challenging, too difficult and dangerous. The plants and animals that do
survive here have made some spectacular adaptations in forms and behaviour to live in these
far reaches of the planet.
The series is suitable for middle secondary students studying Science and SOSE, and for
senior secondary students of Biology, Environmental Science and Geography.
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Episode Nine: Shallow
Seas
The continents are fringed by continental shelves, waters up to 200
metres deep that may stretch out hundreds of kilometres before plunging to
the abyssal depths. While they are less
than ten percent of the worlds ocean
areas, they hold the vast majority of
marine life because this is where we
find the breeding and feeding grounds.
This episode of Planet Earth ranges
from the remarkable biodiversity of the
tropical coral reefs to the rich polar
feeding grounds, using the migration
of a humpback whale mother and calf
as an example to demonstrate the difference between the marine environments available to them. Why would
the mature whales choose to starve
themselves for half the year and what
drives them to migrate thousands of
miles along the coasts of Australia and
other continents? On the way they
may pass the great coral reefs like the
Great Barrier Reef, the largest organic
structures on earth and yet built by
some of the smallest organisms. A
symbiosis between coral polyps and
algae creates rich gardens in otherwise barren tropical marine deserts,
especially in Indonesia where the
most diverse reefs in the world exist.
Hunting packs of sea snakes work in
harmony with carnivorous goatfish to
flush out prey from coral crannies in
astonishing scenes filmed in detail for
the first time.
Time Log
Intro
00:00 - 01:20
01:20 - 03:40
03:40 - 05:30
05:30 - 09:20
09:20 - 12:25
12:25 - 13:25
13:25 - 15:20
15:20 - 19:20
Bahrain Cormorants
19:20 - 21:45
21:45 - 23:45
23:45 - 26:57
26:57 - 28:45
Kelp Forests
28:45 - 30:35
30:35 - 32:45
32:45 - 35:45
35:45 - 39:15
King Penguins
39:15 - 41:25
Predatory Seals
41:25 - 44:00
44:00 - 44:50
44:50 - end
SCREEN EDUCATION
flavescens
Dusky Dolphin Lagenorhynchus
obscurus
Giant Kelp Macrocystis pyrifera
Purple Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
Sunflower Star Pycnopodia helianthoides
Brittle Star Ophiothrix spiculata
Sand Dollar Echinarachnius parma
Chokka Squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii
Short-tail Stingray Dasyatis brevicaudata
Ragged Tooth Shark Carcharias
Taurus
Great White Shark Carcharodon
carcharias
Cape Fur Seals Arctocephalus pusillus
King Penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus
Southern Elephant Seal Mirounga
leonina
Subantarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus
tropicalis
Short Tailed Shearwater Puffinus
tenuirostris griseus
SCREEN EDUCATION
Species List
SCREEN EDUCATION
summer?
5 How much milk does the whale calf need each day?
and squid?
SCREEN EDUCATION
SCREEN EDUCATION
Extension Tasks
Algae
Algae are simple living aquatic organisms, often floating, that capture light
SCREEN EDUCATION
Discussion Questions
Types
Prokaryotic algae
Cyanobacteria have been included
Eukaryotic algae
All other algae are eukaryotes and
conduct photosynthesis within membrane-bound structures (organelles)
called chroloplasts containing DNA.
The exact nature of the chloroplasts
is different among the different lines
of algae, and some members are no
longer photosynthetic. Some retain
plastids, but not chloroplasts, while
others have lost them entirely.
SCREEN EDUCATION
Algae are usually found in damp places or bodies of water and are common
in terrestrial as well as aquatic environments. However, terrestrial algae
are usually rather inconspicuous and
far more common in moist, tropi-
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Corals algae known as zooxanthellae are symbionts with corals. Typical amongst these is the
dinoflagellate symbiodinium, found
in many hard corals. The loss of
symbiodinium, or other zooxanthellae, from the host is known as
coral bleaching and causes death
of the reef area. Corals typically
filter feed at night, sifting particles from the water but the algae
also photosynthesise during the
daylight hours, providing the corals
with food during the other half of
the day.
Sponges green algae live close
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ANSWER SHEET
Viewing Questions
1 The shallow areas around continental coasts down to 200m
2 Eight per cent
3 Whales migrate to breed in warm
tropical seas
4 There are few predators and the
waters are calm
5 500 litres
6 Coral polyps
7 By providing food during the daylight hours
8 Theyre too slow without assistance
9 Shark Bay, Western Australia
10 The Dugong
11 Hydroplaning
12 Marine algae
13 Krill
14 An alga
15 Purple sea urchins
16 Seals and stingrays
Discussion Questions
1 Endless examples but students
might like to consider the nature of
their relationships with their pets
or with the organisms that infest
their own intestines.
2 Seals, whales, dolphins, dugongs.
They appear to have returned to
the water as there were abundant food resources there but the
physical adaptations required were
extreme including loss of limbs,
huge fat reserves, seasonal behaviour patterns. However many are
still gregarious they form tribes or
herds.
3 Almost exclusively. There is some
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