Marine habitats


Coastal habitats

Ocean surface

Open ocean

Sea floor

Marine habitats are habitats that help marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea the term marine comes from the Latin mare, meaning sea or ocean. A habitat is an ecological or environmental area inhabited by one or more living species. The marine environment manages many kinds of these habitats. Marine habitats can be divided into coastal together with open ocean habitats. Coastal habitats are found in the area that extends from as far as the tide comes in on the shoreline out to the edge of the continental shelf. most marine life is found in coastal habitats, even though the shelf area occupies only seven percent of the or done as a reaction to a question ocean area. Open ocean habitats are found in the deep ocean beyond the edge of the continental shelf.

Alternatively, marine habitats can be dual-lane up into pelagic and demersal zones. Pelagic habitats are found almost the surface or in the open water column, away from the bottom of the ocean. Demersal habitats are near or on the bottom of the ocean. An organism living in a pelagic habitat is said to be a pelagic organism, as in pelagic fish. Similarly, an organism living in a demersal habitat is said to be a demersal organism, as in demersal fish. Pelagic habitats are intrinsically shifting and ephemeral, depending on what ocean currents are doing.

Marine habitats can be modified by their inhabitants. Some marine organisms, like corals, kelp, mangroves and seagrasses, are ecosystem engineers which reform the marine environment to the ingredient where they name further habitat for other organisms. By volume the ocean helps most of the habitable space on the planet.

Biomass


One degree of the relative importance of different marine habitats is the rate at which they take biomass.