Coastal habitats
Coastal Where an animal or plant lives. are the places where the land meets the ocean. They can have rocky cliff edges, sandy beaches and rock pools. There are different plants and animals that are suited to live there.
Watch: What are coastal habitats?
Explore the coastal habitats of the UK.
Here in the UK, we have lots of coastal habitats.
Ever wondered what plants and animals live there?
Well, pack your net, we're off to look in some rock pools!
Ooh. Urgh. It looks very wet and windy here.
But there is life here.
Like that seaweed.
And animals, like those limpets on that rock.
They're a kind of snail with a shell and soft body.
They hold very tightly to the rock so they don't get washed away by strong waves.
And what's this? It's a starfish! Can you see it move?
No? That's because it moves very, very slowly.
Most have 5 arms, but some have more.
No…still not moving.
And there's a crab. They walk sideways, how strange!
They can squeeze into small cracks in the rock or burrow into sand.
Plus they can live in water and in air. Amazing!
So, coastal habitats are wet and windy, but there are lots of things to see.
What would you catch in your net?
Microhabitats
Within a coastal habitat, there may be A microhabitat is a small area which differs somehow from the surrounding habitat. such as rock pools. Discover more about rock pools with the video below.
Watch: Rockpools
Rock pools are a microhabitat.
Canada has the longest coastline in the world and is home to a wide variety of different living things.
Can you guess what some of these living things are?
Activities
Test your knowledge of coastal habitats with the activities below.
Activity 1: Finding the coastal animals
Activity 2: Coastal habitats quiz
Activity 3: Coastal habitats
Download this worksheet and draw your own coastal habitat!
Play Bitesize Primary games. game
Fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art and design, computing and modern languages.
More on Living things and their habitats
Find out more by working through a topic
- count10 of 10
- count1 of 10
- count2 of 10
- count3 of 10
