INTERTIDAL ZONE

Connor HaynesDevin Melancon

ABOUT

The Intertidal Zone, sometimes refered to as the Littoral Zone.

It is in the biome of marine aquatic environments in which is found along coast lines all across the world

And is the area that connects the foreshore and seabed that is exposed to the air at low tide and submerged at high tide

This area can include many different types of habitats, with many types of animals.

The zone itself has 3 different zones separating it from top to bottum

ORGANISMS

Organism found in the are generally small. Depending in which zone, the organisms

vary from: Snails, Starfish, Whelk, Sea Urchin, Sea star, Shrimp, Limpet, Oysters, etc.

They are constantly adapting to their environment because of the changes it goes through

These changes consist of the: Moisture, Water Movement, Salinity and Temperature

ORGANISMS CONT…

Moisture: The littoral zone is covered with salt water at high tides, and it is exposed to the air at low tides. Organisms must change to both wet and very dry conditions.

Water Movement: The movement of the water can be difficult for most organism to live in. The rough waves can carry away poorly-adapted organisms. Many intertidal animals burrow into the sand, live under rocks, or attach themselves to rocks for a good way of protection

Temperature: Since the intertidal zone is close to the open air, the changes of the temperature may vary depending on how freezing or warm it is.

Salinity: The salinity is much higher in the intertidal zone because salt water trapped in rock pools evaporates leaving behind salt deposits. Animals must adapt to their systems to these variations. Some fish, like sculpin and blennies, live in tide pools.

THE ZONES

The intertidal Zone, is separated into 3 zones it self

High tide zone (upper mid-littoral) Middle tide zone (lower mid-littoral) Low tide zone (lower littoral)

ZONES CONT..

HIGH TIDE ZONE MIDDLE TIDE ZONE

The high tide zone floods during high tide only, and is a highly saline environment.

Their inset enough abundance of water in the zone to obtain large vegetation, although some do live in the high tide zone.

The predominant organisms in this region vary: barnacles, brittle stars, crabs, green algae, isopods, limpets, mussels, sea stars, snails, whelks and some vegetation.

The middle tide zone is flooded for approximately equal periods of time per tide cycle.

Temperatures are less extreme due to less exposure to the sun, and therefore salinity is only slightly higher than ocean levels.

Although wave actions are generally more extreme than the high tide.

The middle tide zone also has much higher population of marine vegetation, specifically seaweeds.

CONT..

LOW TIDE ZONE

This area is teeming with life. The most notable difference with this region to the others, is that there is much more marine vegetation, especially seaweeds.

Creatures in this area can grow to larger sizes because there is more energy in the ecosystem and because marine vegetation can grow to much greater sizes because of more area

This region is just shallow enough for the Sunlight to reach the vegetation and the salinity levels are just normal.