The largest of all the ecosystems, oceans are very large bodies of water that dominate the Earth's surface. Like ponds and lakes, the ocean regions are separated into separate zones: intertidal, pelagic, abyssal, and benthic. All four zones have a great diversity of species. Some say that the ocean contains the richest diversity of species even though it contains fewer species than there are on land.

The intertidal zone is where the ocean meets the land — sometimes it is submerged and at other times exposed, as waves and tides come in and out. Because of this, the communities are constantly changing. On rocky coasts, the zone is stratified vertically. Where only the highest tides reach, there are only a few species of algae and mollusks. In those areas usually submerged during high tide, there is a more diverse array of algae and small animals, such as herbivorous snails, crabs, sea stars, and small fishes. At the bottom of the intertidal zone, which is only exposed during the lowest tides, many invertebrates, fishes, and seaweed can be found. The intertidal zone on sandier shores is not as stratified as in the rocky areas. Waves keep mud and sand constantly moving, thus very few algae and plants can establish themselves — the fauna include worms, clams, predatory crustaceans, crabs, and shorebirds.

Population Dynamics

The study of population dynamics and population ecology for the shrimp-goby relationship is exceedingly difficult, is made possible by the fact that tagged individuals almost invariably will be found again in the same general region if not the same hole, on future assessments. The real key is to be able to observe a population over time and be able to recognize individuals, or at least trends in a population that would give clues as to the activity of individuals in the population over time.

 What I think about biomes are more about

 plants,and wildlife.

Coral reefs are widely distributed in warm shallow waters. They can be found as barriers along continents (e.g., the Great Barrier Reef off Australia), fringing islands, and atolls. Naturally, the dominant organisms in coral reefs are corals. Corals are interesting since they consist of both algae (zooanthellae) and tissues of animal polyp. Since reef waters tend to be nutritionally poor, corals obtain nutrients through the algae via photosynthesis and also by extending tentacles to obtain plankton from the water. Besides corals, the fauna include several species of  microorganisms, invertebrates, fishes, sea urchins, octopuses, and sea stars.

Horseshoe crabs

Some of our large horseshoe crabs in our Eel petting exhibit.