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Tide Pools
By: Cianna Palomino
&
Alex Atkins 
What is a Tide Pool?
• Tide pools are areas
•
on rocks by the ocean
that are filled with
seawater
Can either be small
and shallow or large
and deep
Tide Pools
• Gravitational pull of moon and sun causes
tides on earth
• The moon is responsible for a little more
than half of earth’s tidal energy
• During the tidal cycle (about 25 hours)
various places on earth’s surface
experience one or two high tides and two
low tides
Tide Cycle
Tide Pools
• Provide a home for
•
hardy organisms
Inhabitants must
cope with constantly
changing
environmentfluctuations in water
temp., salinity, oxygen
content, and other
difficulties
What lives in Tide Pools?
• Tide pools are inhabited
by sea stars, crabs, sea
urchins, anemones,
barnacles, sea cucumber
(lower level), sculpins,
killifish, blenny, yellow
spongefish, sand shrimp,
lobster, octopus,
nudibranch, chiton,
mussles, scallops,
abalone, snails, limpets,
and some other creatures
Spray/Splash Zone
• This zone receives
•
wave action during
high tides and storms
At other times the
rocks experience
other extreme
conditions, baking in
the sun or exposed to
cold winds. Few
organisms survive
harsh conditions
Species Interaction
• In addition to being shaped by aspects of
climate, intertidal habitats—especially
intertidal zonation patterns—are strongly
influenced by species interactions, such as
predation, competition, facilitation, and
indirect interactions.
• Intertidal habitats have been a model
system for many classic ecological studies
because the resident communities are
particularly amenable to experimentation
Competition Interaction
• Competition,
especially for space, is
another dominant
interaction structuring
intertidal
communities. Space
competition is
especially fierce in
rocky intertidal
habitats, where
habitable space is
limited compared to
soft-sediment habitats
in which threedimensional space is
available
Facilitation
• Facilitation refers to one organism helping
another without harming itself.
• Mussels, although they are tough
competitors with certain species, are also
good facilitators as mussel beds provide a
three-dimensional habitat to species of
snails, worms, and crustaceans 
Predation
• Organisms compete in
•
tide pools to hunt for
prey
Some tide pools are
smaller so hunting
prey may be more of
a challenge
Human Impact
• Humans harvest animals
•
•
and plants for food, bait,
and more recently, for
home aquariums
Oil spills, whether
intentional or not, happen
quite often and have a
great impact on sea life
Chemicals used to clean
oil spills also devastate
shore life
Human Impact
• Sewage, sewage related
•
debris, and litter
contaminate sea shore
ecosystem and puts
wildlife in danger
Toxic chemicals and
radioactive waste affects
not only marine life, but
human life as well.
Deadly waste from
radioactive plants and
nuclear power plants are
gotten rid of in the sea
and beaches are also
contaminated by leaks
from these power stations
Human Impact
• Bait collection,
trampling, and
recreational
disturbance also
impact tide pools
because rocky shores
are easily accessible.
People are careless
when walking around
on them and do much
harm to this marine
ecosystem 
Sources
• www.npca.org/marine_and_coastal/beach
es/tide_pools.html
• www.juandefucamarinetrail.com
• www.homepages.ed.ac.uk.
• http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Snakelok.htm
• http://en.allexperts.com/q/Biology664/Regeneration.htm