Wildlife
Intertidal zones lie on the shore between the high and low tide marks. Rocky shores, mudflats and sandy beaches all fall within this area. The animals and plants that live here need to be able to cope with being both submerged in salt water for part of the day and exposed to the sun for the rest of it. Those that are able to survive in these extremes also need to be wary of a multitude of hunters and scavengers, from foxes and otters to lizards and flocks of birds.
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Winter waders
Most of Europe's wading birds spend the winter on Britain's tidal mudflats.
Most of Europe's wading birds spend the winter on Britain's tidal mudflats.
World of wonder
Wildlife needs to be tough to survive in the world of sea and shore.
Wildlife needs to be tough to survive in the world of sea and shore.
Mussel beach
The coast is divided into zones of life each with its own interplay of problems.
The coast is divided into zones of life each with its own interplay of problems.
Palmed off
Sea palms muscle their way into mussel beds by harnessing wave power.
Sea palms muscle their way into mussel beds by harnessing wave power.
Tiny inhabitants
Sandy beaches look barren, but tiny animals thrive in between the grains of sand.
Living in the microscopic spaces between the grains of sand on a beach are tiny life forms. Speeded up 125 times, the film shows how sand masons rebuild their food-catching tentacles in their ever shifting sandy environment.
Antarctic fur seal
Brown fur seal
Common seal
Galápagos fur seal
Grey seal
Otter
Raccoon
Sea otter
Southern Elephant Seal
Southern sea lion
Steller sea lion
Walrus
Greater flamingo
Lesser flamingo
African penguin
Gentoo penguin
King penguin
Snares crested penguin
Goldeneye
Whooper swan
Common crane
Gannets
Socotra cormorant
Arctic skua
Avocet
Common ringed plover
Great black-backed gull
Herring gull
Knot
Lesser black-backed gull
Oystercatcher
Plovers and lapwings
Ringed plovers
Skimmers
South polar skua
Little egret
Wood stork
Shearwaters
Short-tailed shearwater
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore and seashore and sometimes referred to as the littoral zone, is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide (in other words, the area between tide marks). This area can include many different types of habitats, with many types of animals like starfish, sea urchins, and some species of coral. The well known area also includes steep rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, or wetlands (e.g., vast mudflats). The area can be a narrow strip, as in Pacific islands that have only a narrow tidal range, or can include many metres of shoreline where shallow beach slopes interact with high tidal excursion.
Organisms in the intertidal zone are adapted to an environment of harsh extremes. Water is available regularly with the tides but varies from fresh with rain to highly saline and dry salt with drying between tidal inundations. The action of waves can dislodge residents in the littoral zone. With the intertidal zone's high exposure to the sun, the temperature range can be anything from very hot with full sun to near freezing in colder climates. Some microclimates in the littoral zone are ameliorated by local features and larger plants such as mangroves. Adaptation in the littoral zone allows the use of nutrients supplied in high volume on a regular basis from the sea which is actively moved to the zone by tides. Edges of habitats, in this case land and sea, are themselves often significant ecologies, and the littoral zone is a prime example.
A typical rocky shore can be divided into a spray zone or splash zone (also known as the supratidal zone), which is above the spring high-tide line and is covered by water only during storms, and an intertidal zone, which lies between the high and low tidal extremes. Along most shores, the intertidal zone can be clearly separated into the following subzones: high tide zone, middle tide zone, and low tide zone. The intertidal zone is one of a number of marine biomes or habitats, including estuaries, neritic, surface and deep zones.
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Ecozones where this habitat is found
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American crocodile
Crocodiles
Spectacled caiman
Banded sea krait
Sand lizard
Green sea turtle
Three-spined stickleback
Gobies
Ray-finned fishes
Common cuttlefish
Sepia cuttlefish
Gossamer-winged butterflies
Hermit crabs
Sea scorpions
Sunflower star
Crown-of-thorns starfish
Purple sea urchin
Common jellyfish