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this area is exposed to the air at low tide and underwater at high tide (for example, the area between tide marks). This area can include many different types of habitats, including steep rocky cliffs.
Cant get to the beach? Just take in an old Steeve Reeves movie.
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 meters of shoreline where shallow beach slope interacts with high tidal excursion. this is also the only zone before the ocean.
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.
!!!!! inter tidal zone!!!!!
The intertidal zone, also known as the littoral zone, in marine aquatic environments is the area of the foreshore and seabed that is exposed to the air at low tide and submerged at high tide, ie the area between tide marks. In the intertidal zone the most common organisms are small and most are relatively uncomplicated organisms. This is for a variety of reasons; firstly the supply of water which marine organisms require to survive is intermittent. Secondly, the wave action around the shore can wash away or dislodge poorly suited or adapted organisms. Thirdly, because of the intertidal zone's high exposure to the sun the temperature range can be extreme from very hot to near freezing in frigid climates (with cold seas). Lastly, the salinity is much higher in the intertidal zone because salt water trapped in rock pools evaporates leaving behind salt deposits. These four factors make the intertidal zone an extreme environment in which to live.
Some microclimates in the littoral zone are ameliorated by local features and larger plants such as mangroves. Adaption in the littoral zone is for making 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.
