The Intertidal Zone And The Air Land Ocean Interface And Lies Between The Tidemarks On All Shorelines

Has it ever occurred to you that there is another world among us? Beneath the deep blue sea is a vast landscape with plants and animals abundant. These animals are constantly forced to adapt to survive, showing just how strong and resilient they are. Three of these, however, stand out from the rest with features that allow them to survive in the harshest conditions.

The upper zone, also known as the high tide zone, does not have enough water to sustain large amounts of vegetation.[8] The predominant organisms are anemones, barnacles, hermit crabs and limpets. The rock pools in this area are inhabited by large seaweed and small fish.

The sandy shores of beaches can be considered as a very harsh environment to live in (Ted Klenk, 1999). Survival in such a habitat requires an organism to withstand strong wave and current action, tidal rise and fall, unstable substrate, heavy predation and wide variations in salinity and temperature (The Otter Island Project). Any organism found in this type of harsh environment is specialized and highly adapted (The Otter Island Project).

To begin with, if I was currently an advocate for the environment and animals I would first focus on the Orcas, or killer whales, at theme parks, specifically Sea World. First of all, Sea World is inhumane. Five of the Orcas currently at sea world were “whale-napped” from the oceans they called home. For example, Tilikum, one of the most know whales in the Sea World franchise, is now thirty-two years old. He was captured at the age of two by, which means he has been in captivity for thirty years. And, before anyone says Tilikum was injured so they “rescued” him I want to say that it is fact that Tilikum was not injured. He was taken from his family and confined to a tiny tank just so people could make a hefty profit. Also, if the Orcas are

Along the coasts of rocky beaches, an intricate ecological community inhabits the ‘rocky intertidal’ areas. The variety of rocks is home to an array of slimy, squishy, and colorful organisms. This intertidal community is comprised of nine species: three different algae, three stationary filter-feeders, and three mobile consumers. The three algae, Nori Seaweed, Black Pine, and Coral Weed, are the community’s producers and inhabit the bottom of the food chain. The next three species are stationary consumers. They are Mussel, Goose Neck Barnacle, and Acorn Barnacle. Because of their consumer status, they are more competitively dominant than algae. The last three components are the mobile consumers: Whelk, Chiton, and Starfish. They

The rocky shore is the intertidal zone, where the land meets the sea. It has a presence of large and small rocks, with the possibility of rock drop-offs or cliffs. There is a high presence of rock pools, containing an array of living and non-living organisms. The abiotic factors of the rocky shores

The variations of tidal levels have created different degrees of sun and air exposure that have resulted in three zones, generally, the supra-littoral zone, littoral zone and the sub-littoral zone (See Appendix A, Figure 3). Diverse animal and plant organisms excel at surviving and dealing with different degrees of abiotic and biotic factors and as a result the rocky shore ecosystem is comprised of a series of bands known as vertical, or in this instance, intertidal zonation (See Appendix A, Figure 1). Abiotic stresses such as light intensity and wave action typically set the upper boundaries where as biotic stresses set the lower boundaries and limit the distribution of many organisms to particular strata (See Appendix A, Figure 2). It is due to the species distribution among the different zones that the rocky shore ecosystems cannot be defined as a uniform habitat, rather a dynamic and complex one (Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, 2013).

Imagine you are at the bottom of the ocean, and there are hydrothermal vents ejecting hot lava. Adding to your misery, there are huge amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas everywhere that are poisonous to your body. In reality, this is the giant tube worm’s ecosystem. Ecosystems are all of the living things (plants/animals) and the non-living things that live in a specific area and interact with each other. Ecosystems can be of any size. In an ecosystem, there are biotic and abiotic components that are all linked. The pelagic zone or “open ocean zone”, where the giant tube worm, an underwater animal that lives near hydrothermal vents, lives is located next to the continental slope/drop off. The water is much deeper here. At the surface, there is

Intertidal (mud) flats are shielded intertidal and shallow sub tidal areas (Quinn, 2014), with significant ecosystems that provide a diversity of highly productive, environmental habitats that are essential sources of food for fish during times of high tide, and for birds in low tide. The sediment composition of intertidal flats depends on the “interactions between the physical, chemical and biological processes” (Widdows, et al., 2004), but the sediment if mainly fine particles and mostly muds. The sediment itself can also either have vegetation growth or be a completely bare flat region. (Quinn, 2014).

Rocky Shores are found where the sea meets the land which supports a diverse mix of plants and animals that have adapted to survive in the unique conditions of constant wave action as well as the fall of tides (Ehp.qld. 2016). Most of the ecosystems flora and fauna live in the intertidal zone, between high and low tide (Ehp.qld. 2016). They are exposed to two environments, being crushed by waves and swamped by the sea water, extreme temperatures and salinity, and left unprotected

The off-shore marine environment changes intensively with the change in the ocean depth. There are three distinctive zones that can be classified along the depth which is the Epipelagic which extends from the sea surface to a depth of 200 meters, the mesopelagic which extends from a depth of 200 meters to a depth of a 1000 meters and then the Deep sea which extends from a depth of a 1000 meters to the sea floor (Castro & Huber, 2010). The Deep sea can then be divided into a further three zones (Figure 01) Bathypelagic which extends from a depth of a 1000 meters to 4000 meters, Abyssopelagic which extends from a depth of 4000 meters to 6000 meters and then the Hadopelagic which extends which extends from a depth of 6000 meters to the sea floor (Castro & Huber, 2010).

The intertidal rocky shore of Caloundra Beach is inhabited by diverse range of biodiversity of animals and plants, many of which have developed high levels of adaptations throughout their existence. The very boundary of marine and terrestrial ecosystem, this environment is subjected to extremes of the physical environment such as temperature, desiccation, wave turbulence as well the ecological interactions that commonly occur in biotic communities (e.g. competition, predation). However Rocky intertidal shores are easily accessible by humans and provide an enjoyable opportunity for passive recreation and for science and environmental education as well.

The starfish is a keystone species sometimes found in the Northwest intertidal zones. An intertidal zone is also known as the seashore, and is the area that is above water at low tide, and underwater at high tide. Starfish—in their community—are predators and they feed on mussels found in the same ecosystem. When starfish have been eliminated from their ecosystem (experimentally), the mussel population increases, and covers the rocky intertidal zones that once were

Within the intertidal zone, food sources and abundance of nutrients are important biotic factors that shape and controls community dynamics. Algae is an aquatic organism that is the general name for a variety of plant like organisms ranging from single-celled phytoplankton (microalgae) floating in the water column to large seaweed (macroalgae) attached to the ocean bottom. Intertidal

Another abiotic factor that helps the formations of different zones would be the tidal movement (aerial exposure) effecting the sea life shore community. The tidal zones we found at Siren’s Rocks are the sublittoral zone, low tide, mid tide, high tide and supralittoral zone. These are all on the data recorded by us at the rocky shore we researched.