intertidal zone
Sign in to saveAlso known as foreshore, seashore, littoral zone, intertidal areas
area between tide marks
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The rocky shoreline of Saint-Malo, northwestern France, with a stripe of the black lichen Hydropunctaria maura at the high tide line
The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various species of life, such as sea stars, sea urchins, and many species of coral with regional differences in biodiversity. Sometimes it is referred to as the littoral zone or seashore, although those can be defined as a wider region.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “intertidal zone” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.