Vocabulary
Q: This is the area where land meets the ocean and is exposed during low tide.
A: What is the intertidal zone?
Q: This type of tide exposes the most land in the intertidal zone.
A: What is a low tide?
Q: Estuaries are located where rivers meet this body of water.
A: What is the ocean?
Q: Barnacles use this to stay attached to rocks.
A: What is a strong adhesive or cement-like substance?
Q: This has the strongest influence on Earth’s tides.
A: What is the moon
Q: A mixture of freshwater and saltwater is called this.
A: What is brackish water?
Q: Organisms in the intertidal zone must survive both underwater and exposure to this.
A: What is air (dry conditions)?
Q: Estuaries are known as “nurseries” for many species because they provide this.
A: What is shelter/protection?
Q: This adaptation helps mollusks avoid drying out.
A: What is a hard shell?
Q: What is it called when the tide is at its highest point
A: What is high tide
Q: Organisms that can tolerate a wide range of salinity are called this.
A: What are euryhaline organisms?
Q: This zone of the intertidal area is underwater most of the time.
A: What is the lower intertidal zone?
Q: This is a major environmental benefit of estuaries besides being habitats.
A: What is filtering pollution / improving water quality?
Q: Some intertidal animals hide in this during low tide to stay moist.
A: What are tide pools?
Q: The difference in height between high tide and low tide is called this.
Q: The daily rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravity is called this.
A: What are tides?
Q: Name one challenge organisms face in the intertidal zone.
A: (Examples: drying out, wave action, temperature changes)
Q: This factor constantly changes in estuaries and affects organisms living there.
A: What is salinity?
Q: This adaptation helps crabs avoid predators and drying out.
A: What is burrowing or hiding under rocks?
Q: Spring tides happen when?
A: Earth, Moon, and Sun are in a straight line.
Q: The region of an estuary where freshwater and saltwater fully mix is called this zone.
A: What is the mixing zone?
Q: This type of wave energy can dislodge organisms in the intertidal zone.
A: What is wave action?
Q: Name one type of estuary we studied
A: salt marsh, coastal plain estuary
Q: Sea stars survive wave action using this system for movement and attachment.
A: What is the water vascular system?
Q: Neap tides occur when the Sun and Moon are positioned at this angle relative to Earth.
A: What is a right angle (90°)?