Predator Loss and Ecosystem Effects
Your child can trace what happened when sea otters were hunted away. Sea urchins boomed and ate the kelp forests. Removing one animal set off a chain of change.
In curriculum terms
Quantify energy transfer efficiency through trophic levels (~10% rule); explain trophic cascades: how removing an apex predator triggers a chain of ecosystem changes (sea otters → sea urchin explosion → kelp forest collapse); define 'fishing down the food web'; evaluate evidence for ocean rewilding — shark reintroduction, whale recovery driving nutrient cycling; understand why ecosystem-based fisheries management is needed
Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →
Try this together
Can your child trace the chain of events that happened to Pacific kelp forests when sea otters were hunted almost to extinction — what domino effect did removing one species set off through the whole ecosystem?
Where this sits on the map
Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.
solid = must come firstdashed = helps
Curriculum alignment
Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.
This skill sits beyond Year 6 in the Australian Curriculum, so no F–6 code is matched. It also sits beyond the NSW K–6 syllabuses. It also sits beyond Level 6 in the Victorian Curriculum.