THE ROCKY SHORE [NZ]

==The Rocky Shore== A rocky shore is an intertidal area that consists of solid rocks. It is often a biologically rich environment and can include many different habitat types like steep rocky cliffs, platforms, rock pools and boulder fields. Because of the continuously action of the tides, it is characterized by erosional features. Together with the wind, sunlight and other physical factors it creates a complex environment. Organisms that live in this area experience daily fluctuations in their environment. For this reason, they must be able to tolerate extreme changes in temperature, salinity, moisture and wave action to survive. ==Zonation== Each region on the coast has a specific group of organisms that form distinct horizontal bands or zones on the rocks. The appearance of dominant species in these zones is called vertical zonation. It is a nearly universal feature of the intertidal zone. [image:http://i.imgur.com/3e4LTwLl.png] The intertidal zone can be divided in three zones: *'''High tide zone''' or high intertidal zone. This region is only flooded during high tides. Organisms that you can find here are anemones, barnacles, chitons, crabs, isopods, mussels, sea stars, and sea snails. *'''Mid tide zone''' or mid-littoral zone. This is a turbulent zone that is (un)covered twice a day. The zone extends from the upper limit of the barnacles to the lower limit of large brown algae (e.g. Laminariales, Fucoidales). Common organisms are snails, sponges, sea stars, barnacles, mussels and crabs. *'''Low tide zone''' or lower littoral zone. This region is usually covered with water. It is only uncovered when the tide is extremely low. In contrast to the other zones, the organisms are not well adapted to long periods of dryness or to extreme temperatures. The common organisms in this region are brown seaweed,crabs, mussels, sea cucumber, sea lettuce, sea urchins, shrimps, snails, tube worms.