LeeTidePools

Lee's Tide Pool Wiki


Diverse Organisms of Tide Pools


 * Microscopic-
 * One organism that is overlooked by many is the microscopic film that grows on the rocks of tide pools. This film may make things feel "slippery", but play an important roll in feeding many organisms such as the Turban Snail
 * Another microscopic animal within this habitat is plankton. Plankton play a major roll in the food web as well


 * Free Swimming or Floating
 * Octopus
 * Octopi are a carnivorous predator that wreak havoc in tide pools, feeding on everything from crabs to small swimming fish
 * Opaleye fingerlings
 * Adults eat algae, but the juveniles are carnivorous
 * Actually breath air in while it is low tide!






 * Bottom Feeders
 * Tide Pool Sculpin
 * This unique fish has the ability to stop swimming all together
 * They rest on the sandy bottoms of tide pools and also are one of the only fish WITHOUT scales
 * Sea star


 * The Sea Star or Star Fish are usually found on the rocks where they hold on, sometimes to the point to which an arm is ripped off. Yet they can regenerate new arms or legs when they are lost





Plants/Produces of Tide Pools
 * Coralline Algae
 * This is a special type of algae that secrets a hard shell-like coating. This is to protect the algae from pounding waves and burning sun.
 * Kelp
 * Kelp is a type of seaweed found all over the world in all kind of environments, even in tide pools.
 * Kelp is a producer and also houses many fisheries

(1)

Food Web = Different Zones of Tide Pools  =



Threats
 * Humans
 * Harvesting the animals in the Tide Pools for bait and aquariums has limited the diversity in some areas

(2)
 * Population's increasing along coast lines
 * This is taking over the habitat of many tidal plants and animals

= How to reduce your impact  =



Endangered Species

"Intertidal life is the most vulnerable of all marine life," says John Pearse, an emeritus professor of biology at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
(3)
 * 1) Black Abalone Muscle- Nearly wiped out by collectors and disease.
 * 2) Ochre Sea Star- Once the most common Sea Star, now rarely found.





Abiotic Components   Some of the abiotic components in tide pools include Temperature
 * Temperature affects tide pools diversity. The more colder or warmer it can reach widens the range of type of algae present.

Salinity
 * Salinity is the amount of salt present in the water. Depending on the salinity limits the tide pools to either fresh or salt water marine life

Flow
 * As long as the water keeps flowing up on the rocks of the shore, tide pools will exist.

(4)      This project on tide pools was very informative and educational for me. Coming into this project my first choices were lakes and rivers, just because I was most familiar with these bodies of water and that is where I spend most of my time. However, getting assigned tide pools ended up being very rewarding. I had no idea how common they were, actually lying on the cost pretty much all over the world on every continent. Also, the things that affect tide pools are so minimal that we can hopefully eliminate them in order to preserve what has been there for thousands of years. For example, roads or highways built right along the coast. As beautiful as these may seem, the pollution that is gathered from the construction and use of these roads pollutes the entire coasts tide pool. A quick fix would be to have the road a couple miles off the shore. This biota is valuable to us for its diversity and easy access and we do not want to put that in jeopardy. Many sea birds feed off of these tide pools and eliminating them would have a harsh impact on that section of the food web. In conclusion, these tide pools need not to be over looked, but taken care of. __Bibliography__ 1. Unknown. "Tide Pool Organisms." Ocean Marine Protection. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Sept. 2010. .

2. Unknown. "Tide Pools, Human Impact and Conservation." SeaWorld. SeaWorld, 8

Sept. 2010. Web. 9 Sept. 2010. .

3. Stoecklein, Ron. "Pacific Tidepools: A Threatened Environment?" Find Articles. bNet, Sept. 2001. Web. 9 Sept. 2010. 

4. Unknown. "Aquatic Ecosystem." Wikipedia. N.p., 8 Sept. 2010. Web. 9 Sept. 2010. .