Answer:
BIOTIC FACTORS OF THE INTERTIDAL ZONE
A biotic factor is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes. In the interidal zones, that includes autotrophs, heterotrophs, and scavengers.
AUTOTROPHS:
Surf Grass: Surf grass is a commonly found sea grass, especially on the California Coast. Besides provinding fresh oxygen in its ecosystem, surfgrass is also commonly used by the invertebrate communities that form, gather, and live within these beds and meadows.
Red Algae: Also known as Rhodophyta, red algae is almost always marine and gets its redish hughe from its chlorophyll masked by a redish, purpleish pigment. It is the largest and most intrecent of all the seaweeds. There are 6,500 to 10,000 known different types of the algae, 200 of which are only found in freshwater. Some red algae are of economic importance, either as food (Porphyra) or as producers of secondary products (Gelidium, Gracilaria, Chondrus, etc.) used in the food and drug industries.
Eelgrass: Eelgrass is found in sandy areas either submergered or floating. Much like surfgrass, eelgrass is important for stabilizing the ecosystem, and is a living habitat for many small animals and many species of small fish, and is also important for deposition of sediment.
Brown Algae: There are roughly 1,500 species of brown algae, and almost all are found in marine environments. They are members of the class phaeophycae, and are common in cold water. Kelp is a very common sorce of brown algae and is found all along the California coast.
Green Algae: This is the most diverse of all the algaes and the most abundent. There are more than 7,000 species of green algae, one of the most popular being Ulva app, or more commonly known as Sea Lettuce. People put it in salads, soups, and a variety of other foods.
HETEROTROPHS:
Oyster: A common name for the number of different species belonging to the bivalve molluscs. Some kinds of oysters are a very popular food dish and the oyster known as the pearl oyster is harvested for the pearl it creates within its self.
Sea Anemone: Considered to be the flower of the sea, the sea anemone is often mistakin for a plant when it is in fact a meat eating animal. The sea anemone is usually latched onto a rock or coral and uses its sticky and stinging tenticles to pull fish into its mouth.
Coral: Corals are an acient animal with relations to the jellyfish and anemones. An individual coral is known as a polyp, a very small organism consisting mostly of a stomach topped by a tentacle-bearing mouth. Thousands of identical polyps live together to form the coral that is recognizable to most people.
Hermit Crabs: A small crab creature that uses the shell of dead sea snails as protection for its soft body. It moves on from shell to shell as it grows bigger. Some species can get as large as a coconut.
Sea Otters: The haviest member of the weasel family, the sea otter is also the second smallest marine mammel. It lives in the frigid waters of the California coast. These cold waters have lead it to evolve to having the thickest fur coat in the animal kingdom. The sea otter is an essential keystone species for the intertidal zone because it consumes the sea urchins that eat the base of kelp. without sea otters, the kelp population would be in danger.
DECOMPOSERS OR SCAVENGERS:
Starfish: Starfish are among the most familiar of marine invertebrates. They typically have a central disc and five arms, though some species have more than this. The aboral or upper surface may be smooth, granular or spiny, and is covered with overlapping plates. Many species are brightly coloured in various shades of red or orange, while others are blue, grey or brown. Starfish have tube feet operated by a hydraulic system and a mouth at the centre of the oral or lower surface. They are opportunistic feeders and are mostly predators on benthic invertebrates.
Crabs: This species varys from very large to very small. The ones found in the intertidal zones are often smaller. Most crabs eat a mixture of dead plant and animal matter.
Purple Sea Urchin: Also known as Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, purple sea urchins are found in rocky locations along the west coast of North America. Red sea urchins were paryed upon by fisherman almost to the point of eliminating the species, so attention has been turned to the purple sea urchin whcih would allow for the market to be more sustainable.
Excirolana: These small creatures bury themselves in the sand and eat dead animal matter. They are ften reffered to as "sand crabs" and can be found on our local beaches.
Shrimp: Shrimp are widespread and abundent. They are usually found on the seafloor on mosts coasts. They play an important part of the food chain as they are a food source for both fish and larger animals like the whale.
Explanation:
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