Polar Food Chains
Understand polar food chains — in the Antarctic, phytoplankton are eaten by krill, krill are eaten by fish and penguins, and penguins are eaten by leopard seals and orcas; in the Arctic, algae under ice feeds zooplankton, which feeds fish, which feeds seals, which feeds polar bears — and that tiny organisms like krill and plankton are the foundation of all polar life
Teaching approaches
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1 approach
Can your child explain a polar food chain — starting from tiny plankton, through krill and fish, up to seals and polar bears or orcas — and explain why the tiny creatures at the bottom are so important?
Understand polar food chains — in the Antarctic, phytoplankton are eaten by krill, krill are eaten by fish and penguins, and penguins are eaten by leopard seals and orcas; in the Arctic, algae under ice feeds zooplankton, which feeds fish, which feeds seals, which feeds polar bears — and that tiny organisms like krill and plankton are the foundation of all polar life
Learning resources
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This concept
Check understanding
- Construct an Antarctic food chain: phytoplankton → krill → penguin → leopard seal or orca
- Construct an Arctic food chain: algae → zooplankton → fish → seal → polar bear
- Explain why krill and plankton are critical — without them, the entire food chain collapses
“Can your child explain a polar food chain — starting from tiny plankton, through krill and fish, up to seals and polar bears or orcas — and explain why the tiny creatures at the bottom are so important?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Conceptual
- Subject
- Science
- Domain
- Polar Regions
- Age range
- Ages 7–9