General Ecology
Specific Ecosystems
Pacific Coast Tide Pools
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The tide pools of the pacific coast are all special dynamic ecosystems, with community members which may spend their entire life in a 100 gallon pool, receiving their only nourishment when the ocean waves splash over the rocky outcroppings at high tide, bringing new life into the pool. The sun and the moon govern the tides, more by the moon than the sun since it is closer to earth. When the moon is close to earth the tides will be high in that region since, the gravitational pull of the moon pulls the water on earth towards it. This changing of the tides is constant, just like the changing of the tide pools. |
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The organisms which live in the tide pools depend heavily upon one another for food and shelter. The shore can be divided into three distinct communities the kelp forest, the rocky intertidal, the sandy intertidal. Tide pools exist in the rocky intertidal zone which is divided into four sub zones, the splash zone, the upper intertidal, the middle intertidal zone, and the lower intertidal zone.Each of these zones is different and has plants and animals which are adapted to the conditions which they are presented. |
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In the Splash zone, the highest layer of marine life, there are very few organisms since water only reaches this area during severe storms and form the spray during high tide. The animals of the splash zone are include limpets, periwinkles, and a few barnacles which all close up during low tide or dry periods to conserve water, along with pale green sea hair algae and black lichens. |
| The upper intertidal is composed of much more life then the splash zone, since water covers this area at high tide acorn and thatched barnacles are able to survive along with turban snails and muscles, seaweeds such as rock weed which has small air sacs and sea lettuce which provides food and shelter to the hermit and shore crabs. |  |
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The middle intertidal zone is even more abundant in life, since these animals are submerged for longer periods they must worry less about becoming dried out by the hot summer sun or frozen during a cold winter night. Muscles are abundant as well as ochre stars which feed on the muscles, determining the lower boundary for the muscle communities. The middle intertidal is also home to limpets, snails, worms and small crabs, which live among the sea grass and coral leaf algae. |
| The last zone is the lower intertidal this zone is only uncovered during the lowest tides, giving rise to a community of well over 100 species, many times octopus and wolf eels can be found trapped in small residual pools of water at low tide along with green and purple sea anemones, and bright colored sea cucumbers. It is the lower intertidal which is the richest in life yet the most difficult to see. |  |
