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Tidal Zones

Recommended Grades: 4th-6th

Presented by the Artesian Alliance

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Subtidal Zone

  • Always beneath the water
  • Aquatic organisms

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Intertidal Zone

  • The space between high tide and low tide
  • Organisms like crabs, birds, sea stars, snails
  • Extreme environment; hot and dry half the day, covered in saltwater for the rest.
  • Battered by waves.

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Supratidal Zone

  • Above the tides
  • Dunes, edge of the beach

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Adaptations to Tidal Zones

What kind of animals live in each tidal zone? How are they adapted to living there?

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Tidal Zone Activity: Creature Factory

There are a lot of different strategies that creatures use to live in the ever-changing tidal zones of the coast. Design a brand new animal that you think would be excellent at surviving in the tides. This animal can look like anything, but it must be adapted to survive:

  • Hot, dry weather and saltwater (barnacles and clams can open and close to keep themselves safe, starfish can move back underwater)
  • Getting battered by waves (whelks and snails use their hard shell to survive the waves)
  • Being above the water and below it at different times of day (crabs have gills that work above and below the water)

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Mellon Foundation Slides Exit Survey

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cfemD6RK1HmEaZH5PdQqBZjJuA9JcTRJTMkEn0UEyy4/edit?usp=sharing