Ocean habitat

1. Ocean habitat • Ocean Zones and Conditions: - Abiotic Factors: the non-living factors of the environment that an organism lives in. - biotic Factors: the living organisms of the environment. - Ecosystem: A community of different but interdependent species and their non-living environment.

2. Ocean Zones (page 188) • Intertidal zone: the area that lies between the low-tide and the high-tide line. • Neritic zone: the first 200 meters of ocean water, which includes the seashore and most of the continental shelf. • Oceanic zone (open ocean): extends from 200 meters deep all the way down to the bottom of the ocean.

4. Physical conditions • The ocean zone will determine the type of organisms that will be found there. • Fauna: animals • Flora: plants

5. LIFE IN THE OCEAN • Organisms are classified by where they live and how they move. • Plankton – algae like • Diatoms: Microscopic algae with plate-like structures composed of silica. • Phytoplankton: the plant and algae components of the plankton; the primary producers of most ocean food webs. • Zooplankton: Animal component of the plankton that feed on phytoplankton and other zooplankton (primary consumer). • Nekton: free-swimming organisms whose movements are independent of the tides, currents, and waves.

6. Life in the ocean (cont.) • benthos: organisms that live on or in the ocean floor. • Relationship among organisms: working together to as producers and consumers. • Consumers: feed on other organisms because they can not make their own food. • Producers: a living thing that produces its own food with itself, usually by using sunlight energy. • Ocean food web/chain: a hierarchy of food relationships from the simplest to most complex.