Zones of the Ocean

INTERTIDAL ZONE

INTERTIDAL ZONE

NERITIC ZONE

INTERTIDAL ZONE

NERITIC ZONE

INTERTIDAL ZONE

NERITIC ZONE

OCEANIC ZONE

INTERTIDAL ZONE

NERITIC ZONE

OCEANIC ZONE

BENTHIC ZONE

INTERTIDAL ZONE – from high tide line to low tide line

• Pounding waves

• Changes in temperature

• Changes in salinity

• Underwater & exposed to air

• Aerial predators

• Little food

NERITIC ZONE – low tide line to continental slope

• More life than any other zone

• Major fishing grounds

• Sunlight

• Nutrients from land and benthic zone (floor)

NERITIC ZONE

SUNLIGHT & NUTRIENTS:

–Allows phytoplankton to grow

–Supports large number of zooplankton

–Plankton is the basis of Ocean Food Webs

OCEANIC ZONE – from continental slope to continental slope

• Less sunlight & nutrients than Neritic Zone

• Supports fewer organisms

• Organisms are very different because of changes in water (Water Column)

BENTHIC ZONE – the ocean floor

• Deepest parts get no sunlight & is very cold

• Many organisms get food from material that sinks down from above

• Some organisms get energy from chemicals (chemosynthesis) that come from Hydrothermal vents.