Intertidal Zone Research Paper

Life in the intertidal zone can be very challenging for creatures who live there. The amount of factors that weigh down upon your quality of life are insurmountable. These factors include extreme fluctuations in temperature, altered salinity, predators, changing tide levels, and inconsistent feeding opportunities. Regardless of all these challenges the creatures who live there find a way to adapt and survive against all these challenges. Here are a few examples of creatures who have found interesting adaptations to overcoming these challenges.

To overcome the intertidal zone challenges the Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch have a number of adaptations. Since the Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch has no shell and it can't move at any considerable speed it has to be innovative in self defense. It has devised a way to defend itself by imitating a cnidarian. It will take the poison from anemones and store it on its back to defend itself from predators seen in the intertidal zone. The Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch also has a system of detecting food called rhinophores. The way rhinophores work is, it finds chemicals in the water, which lead to finding things for it to eat. They also have a very bright color which helps them fool predators into
This Echinoderm has adaptations for both self defense and body temperature. In the matter of self defense the Orange Sea Cucumber uses a pretty interesting weapon against major predators like the striped sun star. Whenever it feels threatened it will shoot out a bunch of sticky threads at the predator allowing it to escape. To overcome one of the main problems in the intertidal zone: fluctuating temperatures, the Orange Sea Cucumber has an important adaptation to its species. Like trout, it is cold blooded allowing it to live in the area of the intertidal zone that it does where there is no sun. This allows the Sea Cucumber to have little to no need for any natural heat.