Intertidal Zones by Aidan, Kira, and Bryant

On Tuesday, July 2nd we learned about intertidal zones. Within an intertidal zone are vertical zones.

The first vertical zone is the splash zone, also called the upper littoral. This is dry most of the time and is sprayed by the water in high tide zone. The splash zone contains tide pools and it is only covered when it is super high tide or there are storms. This area has little organisims; they include barnacles, isopods, lichens, lice, limpets, periwinkles, whelks, and very little vegetation grows in this area.

Next is the high tide zone, also called the upper mid-littoral zone. This area is only flooded during high tide. Organisms in this area include anemones, barnacles, brittle stars, chitons, crabs, green algae, isopods, limpets, mussels, sea stars, snails, whelks, and some marine vegetation.

The middle tide zone is also called the lower mid-littoral zone. This area is turbulent and is uncovered and covered twice a day. You might find anemones, barnacles, chitons, crabs, green algae, isopods, limpets, mussels, sea lettuce, sea palms, sea stars, snails, sponges, and whelks.

The last vertical zone in the Intertidal Zone is called the low tide zone, also known as the lower littoral zone. This area is always underwater. It is exposed when it is unusually low tide. This is harmful for many animals because they need to live in water and some don't know how to adapt to temperature changes. Creatures in this area are not well adapted to long periods of dryness or extreme temperatures. Some of the organisms in this area are abalone, anemone, brown seaweed, chitons, crabs, green algae, hydroids, isopods, limpets, mussels, nudibranchs, sculpin, sea cucumbers, sea lettuce, sea palms, sea stars, sea urchins, shrimp, snails, sponges, surf grass, tube worms, and whelks.

Animals that live in the Littoral Zone have a wide variety of predators who eat them when the tide is in. The organisms we have mentioned are preyed about by sea animals like fish. When the tide is out, these organisms might be hunted by land animals such as foxes, people, birds, and marine mammals like walruses.

*The bolded words are when another species is introduced into a different zone.