[Music]

now let's leave the necton world and

head down to the benthic world starting

with the shallowest parts of the ocean

and the human entry point the inner

tidal

Zone remember benic means that an

organism lives in or on the sea floor in

the inner tidal Zone life is buffeted

continually by tidal currents waves and

changing environmental conditions from

high tide coverage to low tide exposure

organisms that can survive this harsh

environment must be able to combat these

challenges and have found a number of

clever adaptations for doing so to

prevent desiccation during low tide

animals have shells within which they

can withdraw like snails limpets muscles

and hermit crabs or they have thick skin

like sea stars and giant sea anemones

some anemones stick light colored

sediment to their tentacles then

withdraw inside their bodies to prevent

dry

[Music]

out and some sea stars emit a thick

mucus coating on their outer surface to

prevent dry out to prevent being knocked

around by high waves and currents

strong feet that stick to the Rocks

Barnacles attached their their shells

directly to the Rock sea urchins and

boring clams carve out holes within

which they Nestle sea stars sea urchins

and sea cucumbers have tube feet that

stick strongly to the rocks thanks to

their water vascular system which

creates high amounts of suction anyone

who has ever tried to pry a sea star off

a rock knows how strongly they can

attach muscles attach strong Bissell

threads to the Rocks kelp attach

themselves with hold fasts

to handle the large range of predators

that can arrive during high tide and low

tide anemone and corals have stinging

cells on their tentacles nud branks eat

anemones and use the same stinging cells

for deterring their own Predators SE

Stars can regenerate lost limbs octopus

can camouflage themselves perfectly to

match their surroundings and can use ink

to distract predators and sea stars and

muscles and others can clamp so tightly

to the Rock they are nearly impossible

to pull off to handle the difficulty of

finding a mate sessile permanently stuck

release egg and sperm into the water

column at the same time like corals do

in the hopes that they will get together

in the planktonic world Abalone and sea

urchins do the same many organisms such

as anemones have a second method of

reproduction cloning which they use most

of the year to expand their population

ations these anemones grow buds which

then migrate off their own bodies take

up residents next door and grow into a

cloned version of the

parent Barnacles have a particularly

interesting method of handling the

difficulty in finding mates when you are

permanently attached to a rock the males

have a very long penis which can reach

out of the Barnacle own exoskeleton and

reach outward in a large radius probing

and hunting for a ready available female

to handle the rapid changes in

temperature salinity pH and oxygen

levels that can occur during low tide

when the rocks are exposed and freshwat

rivers pollution or solar heating can

radically change the surroundings

organisms have shells in which they can

Retreat such as Barnacles most have

adapted metabolisms that can handle

and uthermal and many can lie dormant

and even mostly desiccated with no

damage for up to 12

hours lastly to handle the lack of

abundant attachment sites organisms have

learned to live at top each other Brans

cover the surfaces of kelp blades corals

grow cloned colonies at top each other

in branching in other ornate shapes and

as this image shows muscle shells act as

surfaces on which Barnacles Brans

tunicates sponges and sea lettuce can

grow in this picture there's a barnacle

a top of Broan Colony at top of muscle

shell as this other image shows we have

a large solitary stock tunic hit covered

by an encrusting sponge which is itself

covered by these red

Brens due to these many intital

challenges and adaptations the rocky

intertial shorelines typically show

vertical zonation which means that

organisms that are uniquely adapted to

survive in one of the many zones will

thrive in those zones and be found only

there in fact they will likely compe ly

exclude other species from those zones

competitive exclusion is a process where

species for resources reducing the

diversity of a

community this image shows many examples

of vertical zonation and competitive

exclusion the spray zone is the zone

that is rarely ever covered by water but

will be exposed to wave spray during

high tides on stormy days organisms that

are most competitive in this Zone can

handle small amounts of seawater and

plenty of above waterer exposure they

are unique from other land organisms and

that they can handle high amounts of

salt and occasional

submerging examples of organisms who

thrive in this zone are limpets and

Periwinkle

snails the high tide zone sits between

the neep high tide and the spring high

tide that means it will be covered at

most only a few hours a day and then

only every two 2 weeks organisms in this

Zone include again the limpets the

Periwinkle snails but also Buckshot

Barnacles and

kitens the middle tidal zone is the

region of the inner tidle that is always

alternately covered and uncovered each

day the top of the middle tide zone is

middle tide zone is the neep low tide

organisms in this Zone must be able to

handle the most consistent alternation

of wet and dry muscles are the most

competitive at handling the top of this

Zone along with sea lettuce Abalone like

the middle and lowest parts of this Zone

as do Acorn Barnacles goose neck

Barnacles and hermit crabs the low tide

zone is uncovered only during the lowest

low tides it is completely uncovered

during low spring tides and never

uncover during low neep tides

competitive organisms in this Zone can

handle mostly being submerged and very

limited times being exposed these

include sea urchins most kelp sea stars

sponges and nud

branks let's look more closely at one of

the relationships within this inner

tidle environment muscles are the

favored species in the upper middle

tidal zone why their strong Bissell

threads allow them to handle high waves

their shells prevent desiccation they

are highly efficient at getting food

because they are filter feeders they

can't survive higher because they need

coverage they can't survive lower as

well because their major Predator the

sea star would Feast on them and

eliminate them so muscles live as far

away from sea stars as possible when

Tide is High the sea stars can move to

the muscles but they must return to the

low tide zone before the tide Retreats

and leaves them exposed the protection

of the muscles depends entirely on the

speed feed of the sea

stars pause

[Music]

now for more information and more detail

continue on to the next video in this

series

[Music]