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•The presence and distribution of marine

communities are affected by chemistry,
physics and geology of the worlds oceans.
Ocean plants and animals are influenced
by available sunlight, distance from shore
and water depth.
•Marine Life, plants and animals of the
sea, from the high-tide mark along the
shore to the depths of the ocean. These
organisms fall into three major groups: the
benthos, the nekton, and plankton.
 Based on available sunlight.

 Based on depth.

 Based on distance from shore.

 Available Light

 Photic Zone

1. Euphotic Zone

 Aphotic Zone
 Photic Zone
 From the word photos meaning “light”.
 Photic zone is the upper part of the ocean
into which light penetrates and is about
200 meters deep.
 Clarity of seawater is affected by air
bubbles, mineral content, decaying organic
particles and
microscopic living organisms.
 These affects the sunlight penetration of
various depths in different areas.
 Euphotic Zone
 From the words eu meaning “good” and
photos meaning “light”.

 Portion of the Photic Zone where light is

bright enough for photosynthesis to occur.

 In clear water, it can reach a depth of 100

meters, but will be shallower in cloudy water.
Aphotic Zone

• From the words a meaning “without” and

photos meaning “light”.
• There is no sunlight penetration.
• Most of the deep ocean is lacking in light
except the bioluminescent plants and
animals.
 Distance from Shore

Intertidal Zone

Neritic Zone

Oceanic Zone
 Intertidal Zone
 The intertidal zone, also known as the littoral zone, is the
area of the foreshore and seabed that is exposed to the air at
low tide and submerged at high tide.
 The supply of water which marine organisms require to
survive is intermittent.
 The wave action around the shore can wash away or
dislodge poorly suited or adapted organisms.
 The intertidal zone's high exposure to the sun makes
temperature range to extremes, from very hot to near
freezing in frigid climates (with cold seas).
 The salinity is much higher in the intertidal zone because
salt water trapped in rock pools evaporates leaving behind
salt deposits. These four factors make the intertidal zone an
extreme environment in which to live.
 Neritic Zone
 From the word nektos meaning “of the coast”.
 The neritic zone,is the part of the ocean extending from
the low tide mark to the edge of the continental shelf
break, with a relatively shallow depth extending to about
200 meters (100 fathoms) and covers only about 5
percent of the world’s ocean.
 The neritic zone has generally well-oxygenated water,
low water pressure, and relatively stable temperature
and salinity levels. These, combined with presence of
light and the resulting photosynthetic life, such as
phytoplankton and floating sargassum, make the neritic
zone the location of the majority of sea life.
 Zooplankton, free-floating creatures ranging from
microscopic diatoms to small fish and shrimp, live in this
zone, and together with phytoplankton form the base of
the food pyramid that supports most of the world's great
fishing areas about 90 percent.
Oceanic Zone

• This is the largest zone in the ocean. It

occupies 90% of the surface area of the
world ocean. It is 200 m along continental
slopes to as deep as 11,000 m below the
surface. Sunlight does not penetrate very
deep into the oceanic zone.
 Depth
Pelagic Zone

Benthos
 Pelagic Zone
 From Greek the word πέλαγος, pelagios or pélagos
meaning “of the sea” or “open sea”.
 Can be thought of in terms of an imaginary cylinder or
water column that goes from the surface of the sea
almost to the bottom.
 Conditions change as you go deeper down the water
column; the pressure increases and there is less light.
 Occupies 1,370,000,000 cubic kilometres (330,000,000
cubic miles) and has a vertical range up to 11,000
metres (36,000 feet).
 Benthos or Benthic Zone
 From the word benthos meaning “bottom”.
 The ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water
such as an ocean, including the sediment surface and some
sub-surface layers.
 Begins at the shore line and extends downward along the
surface of the continental shelf out to sea. The continental
shelf is a gently sloping benthic region that extends away
from the land mass. At the continental shelf edge, usually
about 200 metres deep, the gradient greatly increases and
is known as the continental slope. The continental slope
drops down to the deep sea floor. The deep-sea floor is
called the abyssal plain and is usually about 4000 metres
deep. The ocean floor is not all flat but has submarine
ridges and deep ocean trenches known as the hadal zone.
Marine Life Zones