Rocky shores. Life in the surf

The diversity of marine life on a sandy bottom can hardly be compared with life literally seething among the underwater rocks. Here there is a place for algae bushes to gain a foothold, and among these dense thickets countless fish, crustaceans, and mollusks can hide and live. There are a lot of shelters here - caves, cracks, where you can wait out the storm and hide from predators.

Any solid surface in the sea is used repeatedly: an algae is fixed on a stone, other algae, sponges, bryozoans grow on it; someone else settles on them; tiny mollusks and various crustaceans crawl along the branches. Of course, life on rocks is much richer and brighter than sandy. And in order to see it, scuba gear is not needed, since its greatest diversity is not in the blue depths, but relatively shallow - up to 10m. So, knowing how to dive correctly with fins (or without), but without fail with a mask, you can easily see all the brightest and most wonderful.

There are more than a hundred species in the Black Sea. But the most important and numerous underwater thickets are formed by the main alga - brown - called bearded cystoseira. Its forests surround the shores of our sea wherever there is solid ground. This is exactly the algae that, after a storm, forms whole shafts along the beaches, smelling sharply of iodine - the very smell of the sea. Visitors to this pungent smell is not too to their liking, but it is so unusually memorable!

In these drying brown bales one can see amphipods and other small crustaceans very similar to wood lice. These are isopods, or isopods. They are also called spherols-watermelons, for the fact that they seem to “roll” among the stones of the beach and the passed grass. They not only look like wood lice - they are their closest relatives. Know that our ordinary gray ground woodlice are also isopods, and they must be respected simply for the antiquity of their kind (besides, they are completely harmless creatures). This unique crustacean has managed to reach the land completely and still lives on land with gills that are protected by a shell-cap.

The closest relatives of wood lice and isopods are sea cockroaches, but they have nothing to do with our land cockroaches. They just look a little like them in shape, and in color - grayish-transparent and very cute. Very small, unlike the North Sea "cockroaches" the size of a palm (!). They spend their whole quiet life among underwater algae and, like isopods and crustaceans, serve as orderlies. Thanks to all of them, the sea does not smell of decay. So in the sea there is no one unsympathetic, unnecessary, and everyone works to the best of their ability and ability for the benefit of their Big House. And we must not forget that we come to this House of Theirs as guests and behave with dignity and nobility, not outrageous, ruining and destroying everything in our path, but humanly. Have you forgotten how?

A few steps from the shore, among the stones and algae - shrimps - elegant palemons. They are very beautiful, almost transparent, with magnificent blue and orange bandages on the legs. If you sit quietly in the water next to them, you can see that the shrimp do not swim, but walk slowly, moving their legs (and how can they not get confused in them ?!) - they are grazing: they nibble on young algae seedlings. But if the shrimp feels your presence, then in an instant it will fly away from you, like a spring, in an unknown direction. This jump is the work of a muscular abdomen and caudal fin. On the branches of coastal algae, a sea goat “grazes” - a tiny crustacean only 3-4 mm long - tender and transparent. Quite a large shrimp - speckled palemon. It is distinguished by many small specks and wide lobes on the muzzle. Palemon prefers slightly saline waters, therefore, as a rule, it is found near the mouths of rivers flowing into the Black Sea. That's where they are collected. locals nets, so that later, no longer transparent, but red, boiled, to be sold along the beaches and streets of resort towns.

One of the typical inhabitants of the rocky coastline is crabs. It must be said that crabs, crayfish, shrimps, lobsters, lobsters - all these are the names of close relatives from the order of decapods - the most complex and highly organized crustaceans. It is customary to call shrimps small crayfish, and crabs (this English word- crab) - crayfish that do not have a muscular abdomen with a fin (therefore they cannot jump back). Lobsters and lobsters (French names) are large sea crayfish, and lobsters are the same, only in English. The body of crabs is flattened and shortened; the head and chest are covered with a carapace (shell) of a rectangular or oval shape. On the ventral side of the cephalothorax there are 5 pairs of legs, and the first pair is always with claws (the limbs of crabs are regenerated, that is, restored when lost, like the tails of lizards).

The very first on the rocky coast you can meet marble crabs. These are the only Black Sea crabs that run out of the water and travel along coastal rocks and rocks. However, at the first sign of danger, they instantly take off and rush into the water or the nearest gap. Because of their dark color and long legs, they are often referred to as spider crabs. They are small in size (no more than 4 cm) and you will not find them deeper than 5 m. If a marble crab is huddled in a slot, then you can’t pull it out of there for anything! Yes, and it’s not worth it - it can bite quite strongly with sharp claws. If you still caught a crab, then hold it by the sides of the shell at the back. And then it's better to let go - you should not make fun out of a living being. Is there in Black Sea crabs due to their small size, there is nothing special.

Another notable crab is lilac, or water-loving. It is slower and more inconspicuous than marble, and is found not only in shallow water, but at depths up to 15m. He possesses unusual ability to dig into the ground and stay there for no one knows why for weeks (!) With such habits of his, perhaps you can call him a water-lover-philosopher. Otherwise, what else can you do with practically no food and air, how not to philosophize? There is another mystery of lilac crabs - their massive kills. They can happen both in summer and in autumn, and then their small stiff bodies dot the whole coast. Maybe some kind of disease, unknown to other types of crabs, so overnight mows down their lilac rows, or maybe it's from their love for a solitary philosophy: "woe from wit" ...

Or here is such an amazing specimen - an invisible crab. Invisible - because no one has yet been able to see him among the algae (unless you fill a large basin of water with algae and “calculate” him by moving among them). He himself is rather thin, with long legs, and at the same time he is also an amateur gardener - he plants various small algae bushes on himself to disguise himself. Yes, and walks like a flower bed among the grass - go and see.

The biggest crabs Black Sea- stone (7-8 cm wide). They prefer to live deeper, although they are often found not far from the coast, but this is only in deserted rocky places. If all benthic crustaceans are primarily scavengers (according to the nature of their diet), then the stone crab, strong and aggressive, can be a fast and agile predator. In ambush, he lies in wait for snails, worms and small fish. Its claws have monstrous strength - they bite, like seeds, shells of mollusks and hermit crabs. Their muscle fibers at the molecular level differ from the muscles of animals and humans. In this we absolutely lose to them. The color of the stone crab's shell is always the same as that of the stones among which it lives. Basically, it is a red-brown color, but stone crabs living among yellow sandstones are themselves quite light. They are quite pugnacious among themselves: they fight for territory or prey up to the loss of claws (among the stones you can often see their separately-rolling fighting organs).

It looks like a stone hairy crab, only its size is half as large. And the shell of a dark purple color is covered with a thick layer of yellowish bristles-hairs. It lives closer to the shore, under rocks. Its diet is not too different from other crabs, but it is especially dangerous for various gastropod mollusks - like nuts, their strong shells prick, only fragments fly.

We also have a very small crab - a pea crab. Usually he lives among mussels, sometimes even inside the shell of a live mollusk (!). But you can find them on the stones of shallow water, only it is very difficult to see them - they are the size of a child's fingernail.

Remember, we talked about hermits-diogenes, who prefer the sandy bottom to the stones? So here, in the stone underwater kingdom, there is a kind of hermit crabs - klibanaria. He is several times larger than Diogenes and chooses for himself not small shells of nana or tricia, but empty shells of rapans. Rapanas, like all mollusks, move rather slowly along the bottom, but if you see that one of them is literally rushing over the stones, then grab it and look rather - you will surely see our wonderful Klibanaria. He is stunningly handsome, like an inhabitant of a coral reef - bright red legs and mustaches and the same red, but also with white polka dots claws!

Another small crab lives on underwater rocks (shell width is not more than 2 cm). He lives among mussels and has a deep pink color with an orange underbelly. His whole shell and paws are studded, as if with light hard moss, with numerous outgrowths. That's what it's called, the moss-legged crab.

If we met burrows of mole crayfish in the sand, then the biocenosis of stones has its own “filterer” (filtration is such unusual way food) - crab-like cancer of pisidia. He sits under the stones, clinging to them, and waves his paws, pumping water with all kinds of food under the stone - he feeds like that, preferring not to go for food himself, but for her to go to him, and, I suppose, at the same time he says: “according to pike command, at my will ... "

The stones are overgrown - also the kingdom of gastropod mollusks - armored and nudibranchs. Nudibranch mollusks do not have shells and rather resemble slugs crawling along algae branches. There are few of them, but the world of shellfish is very diverse. Who has not collected entire collections of shells along the seashore as souvenirs before leaving home? But all this is empty houses of mollusks. The way of life of all of them is very similar: almost all of them eat with the help of a radula - a special grater tongue, with which they scrape their food from stones and algae trunks (almost everything is eaten). There are also those who, having opened their shells, are waiting for someone of the right size to grab it and digest it. There are quite a lot of them all, but the most known to us are those whom we ourselves are not averse to eating, namely: mussels and rapana. Big and beautiful gastropod rapana - already quite familiar to us (its lacquered shells of various calibers are sold in all souvenir shops), actually appeared in relatively recently (about 60 years ago) and it arrived with Far East with the ballast water of ships. Brought it to us on our head!

Since then, many settlements of the bivalve mussel, our other edible mollusk, have suffered greatly. After all, rapana - cruel predator, paralyzing victims with poison and eating their bodies with a proboscis. The villain prefers mussels, although he also attacks oysters, scallops, cockles and even crabs. The meat of the rapana itself is quite tough and the longer you cook it, the more “rubber” it becomes - not like, in my opinion, tender tasty mussels. And it would be absolutely perfect for us with such a neighbor to be left without mussels, but they came up with smart people grow them on special marine farms, especially since mussels breed all year round, releasing a huge number of planktonic larvae into the water. A nutritional qualities they are only slightly inferior to the famous oysters. Mussels live in mass settlements - "brushes". On any solid object in the sea (on a stone, on piles under bridges), you can see their dark wedge-shaped valves attached to the surface with a bundle of thin threads - byssus.

It is remarkable that mussels are the most active filterers of sea water: they receive oxygen and food (phytoplankton) by passing water through their mantle. One large mussel filters 3.5 liters of water per hour. Imagine what it would be clean water off the coast, if there were enough of these mollusks in it? Almost everyone knows mussels, but not everyone knows the chiton - another shellfish. The tunic sits on its “leg”, breathes through gills and feeds with the help of a radula. Its calcareous shell consists of 8 separate scutes with a crest-keel in the middle. For them, our sea is rather fresh, so they do not grow more than 15 mm in our country. And there is one eccentric among the mollusks called petrikola. So during his lifetime he voluntarily puts himself in a cell and lives in it until the end of his days as a prisoner. Petrikola the Prisoner, that's what we'll call him. This mollusk pickles minks in limestone with its acid secretions, settles there, and then, as it grows, only expands the chamber, leaving the entrance narrow (no entry, no exit). Its ribbed uneven doors remain inside even after the death of the inhabitant.

Isn't it all wonders of the underwater world?! - I'll ask you. Maybe someone will not agree, but it will be just out of harm;))

Black Sea, rocky shore: right from the water's edge, dense thickets of brown algae cystoseira begin. The branches of its huge - up to one and a half meters in height - bushes - stretch to the surface with special bags filled with air. Cystoseira beardedCystoseira barbata- the main algae-macrophyte of the coast in the Black Sea, a landscape-forming species. Epiphytic algae grow on its branches, fouling animals settle - sponges, hydroids, bryozoans, mollusks, sedentary polychaete worms; small snails and crustaceans feed on the dying cells of its bark, fish hide and make nests among its branches, and marble crab and crab are disguised under its color. invisible Macropodia longirostris, and numerous coastal fish of the Black Sea, and the tricolium snail - all who live in this underwater jungle, stretching along the rocky bottom of the Black Sea from the surface of the water near the coast to a depth of 10-15 meters.

Greenfinches over the Cystoseira Forest

The male greenfinch, having fertilized the masonry, protects it - drives away other fish from the entrance, ventilates the nest with a wave of the pectoral fins. Such paternal care for offspring is a property of most local fish - so do dogfish and gobies, whose clutches can be found under stones and large empty shells.

Greenfinches feed by nibbling the crusts of fouling animals from the branches of algae and the surface of stones - mollusks, worms, sea acorns. To do this, their fangs move forward, and the mouth turns into hard tongs-tweezers for cleaning underwater rocks - with their help, they pull out crabs and shrimps hidden in the cracks, crumble shells of mollusks and tubes of worms. Zelenushki live up to the lowest boundary of the rocky soil - 25-40m.

Graceful palemon shrimp live in the crowns of Cystoseira Palaemon elegans, small snails crawl along the branches - tricolia, bittiums - and many other animal species that feed on dying bark cells and periphyton on the branches of the host algae. There are also small predators here - for example, polychaete worm oil Nephthys hombergii. The crown of each large algae is a whole world, a community of animals adapted for living together, epiphytic macroalgae and masses of microscopic organisms: these are bacteria, unicellular periphyton algae (mainly diatoms), amoeba and ciliates; small crustaceans - sea ​​goats and other amphipods; isopod crayfish - sea cockroaches idothea Idothea sp., harpacticides, balanus larvae and others.

flocks of mullet swiftly sweeping at a shallow depth, above the very crowns of algae - these are large fish with silvery scales. During seasonal migrations along the coasts of the Caucasus and Crimea (in spring - for feeding in estuaries, Azov, river mouths, in autumn - for wintering under the Caucasian, Crimean, Anatolian shores) they move in huge masses - hundreds of fish in one flock. That is why in April-May and in October we most often see dolphins off the coast - they are chasing schools of mullet. Several species of mullet live in the Black Sea, but we most often meet near the coast mullet singil Lisa aurata- not the largest - up to 30 cm species of these fish, which is easy to identify by the orange spot on the "cheek" - the gill cover. The mullet is an excellent swimmer, but it finds food at the bottom - it simply eats silt and even sand, raking in the ground lower jaw like a shovel. What is edible will be digested and assimilated, and everything else will pass through the fish and end up at the bottom again. Fish that eat this way are called soil beetles, or detritivores. Since an unlimited amount of detritus is formed in the Black Sea, the food base of the mullet is inexhaustible. All species of mullet are able to live both in sea and fresh water (euryhaline fish), which gives them a huge advantage - mullet fry keep in the mouths of rivers and in shallow water near the shore, where they are not threatened by sea predatory fish- bluefish, horse mackerel, garfish; they feed in limans and estuaries rich in nutrient silt, where salinity fluctuations are very large; and the mullet winters at a depth of more than 50 m under the steep shores of the Black Sea - in the most stable conditions.

Gray mullet Lisa aurata Other species of mullet in the Black Sea: becoming rare sharp-nosed Mugil saliens; larger mullet loban Mugil cephalus, widely distributed in coastal regions around the world. The large Far Eastern mullet brought by Soviet ichthyologists to the Black Sea in the 1980s breeds very successfully in the Black Sea estuaries and Azov. pilengas Mugil sojui. In recent years, the pilengas in the Black Sea is the main object of fishing from the shore - especially during its spring migration. Pilengas spring course near the beach VDC Orlyonok, depth 1-2m. A dark mass of hundreds of 30-50 cm fish can be seen from the shore.

flora and fauna of underwater rocks of the Black Sea - 40 meters down

Wandering along the coast, you probably noticed a bluish slimy film on the water, rocks and piers. Off the coast of the United States, "mermaid hair" is often found - dark, fleecy, like felt, algae that covers stones and piles. These blue-green algae are the simplest, most primitive of marine plants. Some algae belonging to this group are not at all blue or green, but orange or reddish in color. The Red Sea is so named because it is inhabited by blue-green algae - Trichodesmium erythraeum. Much smaller than its name, this plant blooms periodically; at the same time, huge areas of the sea acquire a yellow, orange, and occasionally red tint.

In temperate and tropical latitudes, lower layers intertidal zone to a depth of about 9 meters, you can find many varieties of green algae. The most common large, luxurious sea lettuce - Viva lactuca and Viva latissima. It reaches a length of 1.3 meters and grows just below the low tide mark. [Maximum dimensions are given.] Also found here are the herbaceous, tubular Enteromorpha, the lacy, fluffy sponge-like sea moss Bryopis, the branching Codium, and the strange algae Penicillus, called "water tassel."

Green algae.

To see most varieties of brown algae, you need to have diving equipment or a boat with a transparent bottom (the water, of course, must also be transparent). The scientific name of this class of algae - Phaeophyceae - means "shadow" or "crepuscular" plants. They grow at depths of about 30 meters near rocky shores at all latitudes - from the tropics to the polar countries. True, the cold waters of high latitudes are more to their liking.

Brown algae have over 1000 varieties, very different in size and structure. These include tiny, filamentous plants such as Ectocarpus, the 4.5-meter "water line" plant (Chorda), and giant kelp. The small sea palm (Postelsia) grows near the open west coast of the United States, where it has to withstand the impact of powerful surf. Masses of brown fucus, with their characteristic "berries" or air bubbles, color large areas of rocky intertidal zones north of central California and South Carolina.

Giant brown algae include the kelp, or "devil's apron" (Laminaria), reaching a length of 4.5-6 meters, the 30-meter sea gourd (Pelagophycus) and the 40-meter bubble algae (Nereocystis)1. The largest of all plants and the longest of algae, Macrocystis, sometimes attached to the bottom at a depth of 80 meters, and with its crown touches the surface of the sea. These sea trees form entire underwater forests, and under the dense canopy of their “trunks” with undulating “leaves” (thalluses) myriads of animals find food and shelter.

Rich thickets of brown algae near the Pacific coasts are used to obtain food products, fertilizers and feed for livestock. These plants have served as food for millions of inhabitants of the densely populated coastal regions of Asia and the islands since time immemorial. Pacific Ocean. Currently, the inhabitants of the mentioned areas eat about 100 varieties of these algae.

Brown algae, as rich in minerals as manure, has long been used fresh or half-ripe as fertilizer by farmers in Scotland, Ireland and France. Several factories have been built on the west coast of the United States to process these algae into fertilizer. Not so long ago, a dairy farm where seaweed made up 10 percent of the diet set a world record for milk production.

With increasing depth, brown and green algae are replaced by red algae from 1 to 130 meters long. They love soft light, which makes them an important food source for offshore dwellers. Distributed throughout the oceans, most often these plants are found in temperate climate and in the tropics. These are the most beautiful and amazing representatives of the marine flora, their color is bright and bizarre: orange, red, purple, olive, purple and rainbow.

Red algae.

The purple algae Porphyra looks a lot like sea lettuce. This flexible plant is not afraid of the impact of the waves of the surf. aborigines North America, the Indians, ate the algae Porphyra tenera, which is still found in abundance along the coast of America from California to the Gulf of Alaska. In the UK, the dark red Rhodymenia is readily eaten by a large cattle, and sheep even prefer it to grass and descend to the intertidal zone to feast on it. People consume this seaweed in its raw form; they chew it like chewing gum or eaten with fish and butter. In many countries, it is poured with milk and served as a seasoning for stews.

As a child, I often went to visit my grandparents in the Krasnodar Territory, and I myself lived with my parents in one of the cities not far from the northern capital. For me, these “business trips” were a joy, three whole months on the street with friends, sun, heat, watermelons at 10 kopecks per kilogram. And after the vile climate of the north-west of our Motherland, this can generally be called a paradise. Many years have passed since then, and now I live with my girlfriend all in the same city. In the summer of 2010, the girl told me that our climate is bad, we should have a rest somewhere in the south - come on, she says, we’ll go to Egypt or Turkey. And then it dawned on me - why go to Turkey, when my relatives live in our south? That's what they decided on. And after a couple of weeks, we were already drinking tea with her in a carriage tapping on the rails. Next, a village with a population of 70 thousand inhabitants was waiting for us, 500 kilometers from the Black Sea. After staying with my grandmother for two days, we were sent to the sea by bus. To be honest, this part of the journey was much less pleasant: almost a ten-hour bus ride, in hot weather, without air conditioning - just a mockery.
We arrived at a Soviet-style pioneer camp located to the east of the village of Novomikhailovsky. It was built, apparently, a long time ago, but the management carefully followed it. The old houses, although they were built from crooked, dried boards, were completely painted recently. In general, the camp was quite tidy, well-groomed and did not at all create a feeling of abandonment and decay. A few words about how we got here: in the village where my grandparents lived, there was only one machine-building plant, and my grandfather had a friend who was one of its leaders. Through him, my girlfriend and I made a weekly trip to this camp almost free of charge. In fact, we were sent on vacation as factory workers.
The camp itself was located on a fairly high altitude relative to the sea, from the edge of the cliff opened beautiful view on the sea, and at night you simply cannot imagine a more romantic place: a perfectly flat moonlit path appeared on the surface of the water, and it seemed as if you could walk along it. But the descent to the shore was a real hell for the well-fed (which, thank God, neither I nor my girlfriend are): a huge, long staircase passing through thickets of trees growing on the mountainside. Just before the beach (about ten meters to the end) the stairs appeared from the thickets of trees and from the beach one could see who was walking along it. Sometimes parents stood in this place and made sure that their children did not swim far. It took 15 minutes to fully climb the stairs. However, with all this, literally every five meters a lantern hung above the stairs, which made night walks along it very romantic. In general, for a young couple there was everything to have a great rest. The beach itself was located a couple of kilometers from resort village- if my memory serves me right, then it is called Novomikhailovsky, - but at the same time, this very beach is located between two ledges, and as a result, it seems that there is no civilization around for many kilometers. This solitude was very pleasant to me and my girlfriend.
In this camp, I met my old friend - Zhenya. He himself seemed to be from Krasnoyarsk and also came for the summer to his grandmother in that very village in the Krasnodar Territory. In general, in childhood, we spent every summer with him together. I stayed in his house, and my girlfriend went to our house. When I was chatting with Zhenya, a most amusing idea suddenly came into my head, as it seemed to me then: to scare my girlfriend. Having laughed, Zhenya and I developed a plan: on the last night before leaving, the girl and I were going to take a walk along the beach at night, at that very moment Zhenek in a black mask from the Scream was supposed to crawl out of the thickets and start chasing us. We also agreed that when I run away, I will lead the girl to a dead end in the rocks, and at that moment Zhenek will take off his mask, and we will all laugh together.
The next night, as planned, my girlfriend and I went for a walk on the beach. The weather was simply amazing: calm, smooth water, like glass with a moonlit path, the silence is broken only by a slight swaying of the water. We walk along the shore, pebbles rattle under our feet. Slowly, we began to approach the thickets, and I already began to chuckle to myself. Suddenly, Zhenek comes out of the thickets - it must be admitted that he managed to get out spectacularly; I was afraid that when he got out of the bushes, he would make a noise and turn around, spoiling the rally from the very beginning. But he did not disappoint: he stepped out of the thicket with even, straight steps, pebbles crunched under his feet. I felt my girlfriend's nails dig into my hand, so hard that I almost screamed. For a second we froze, and then Zhenek suddenly walked sharply in our direction (at that moment there were fifteen meters between us). At the same second, the girl screamed and ran in the opposite direction (we walked towards the stairs), dragging me along with her. We ran very fast, my slates even flew off my feet, and the girl kept dragging me along with her. I turned back and saw Zhenya following us - he was walking with a quick, confident step, and in the moonlight he looked very scary: somewhere he found something like a black hoodie, long, to the very ground, and there was a hood on his head. I chuckled to myself and abruptly dragged my girlfriend towards the very dead end we agreed on. In fact, we ran away not far - the stairs with flashlights were perfectly visible from here. Having run into a dead end, I dragged the girl with me into a corner that was hidden from the moonlight, we pressed our foam against the cold stone and froze. I covered the girl's mouth with my hand and gestured: "Shh!". I myself was already bursting with laughter, I was ready to neigh like a horse at any moment. But the girl was trembling so much that I thought the stone behind us was about to shake. Suddenly, very close by, we heard the crunch of pebbles under our feet. The footsteps came closer, all at the same steady pace. Zhenek appeared in front of the stones, he stopped abruptly and seemed to peer into the darkness. The girl grabbed me with her nails again. Zhenek began to move in our direction, but with slower steps. After taking a few steps, he stopped again and began to turn his head.
And then for some reason I stopped bursting with laughter, the fun inside was replaced by confusion, and a slight chill ran down my back: I heard Zhenek, turning his head from side to side, sniffing. Yes, he sniffed like a dog looking for a trail. A variety of thoughts flashed through my head, and a shiver went through my body. Still not believing in the reality of what was happening, I was numb and could not move. And then my brain gave me a chilling thought: Zhenya’s “Scream” mask, although it was black, was made of glossy plastic, which in the moonlight, even under the hood at least once, would have reflected the moonlight. And the one in front of us had solid black under the hood. Now, realizing that it was not Zhenya standing seven meters in front of me, I realized that I needed to act. I turned and looked at the girl, she closed her eyes, trembled, but did not make a sound. With my bare feet, I carefully groped for the pebbles, afraid to make any sound. I managed to put one of the stones on my foot. What stood in front of us continued to turn its head and sniff, but did not move from its place. Horror fettered my whole body, but I understood that we could not stand here like this all night and not make a sound. And suddenly one of the lanterns on the stairs blinked. I began to peer and realized that the lantern did not blink at all, just someone passing by blocked its light. And then I broke out in a cold sweat. In the distance I saw Zhenya, who was carrying a mask in his hand. I was ready to scream in fear, but, thank God, I restrained myself and in the next second I swung my leg and launched the stone forward. The stone rang loudly, and at the same moment what was standing in front of us soared (I can’t call it a jump) a couple of meters into the air and collapsed where the stone hit. The girl screamed, I, without wasting a second, grabbed her with all my might and rushed towards the stairs. The girl kept screaming, the echo rolled along the beach, and in my ears I heard only the wild beating of the heart and the roar of the pebbles behind us. This creature realized that it had been deceived, and now it was rushing after us in a completely different way than before: it ran, covering two or three meters with one step. I squeezed everything I could out of myself, and now we were already running along the iron stairs ...
When we got to our house, the girl was already just sobbing and writhing in hysterics. I rushed to calm her down and said that it was a hoax, that our pursuer was my friend Zhenya, with whom I agreed to scare her. I must admit that I did not think that she could hit me like that, but in a second I was already sitting on the floor, and my eyes were swimming from a sickly blow to the jaw. The girl collapsed into bed, still sobbing, but after a while the sobs stopped and she fell asleep. I lay and looked at the ceiling. I still couldn't believe it all. And why Zhenya and I ...
Zhenya! I completely forgot about him, but he stayed somewhere with this creature. I wanted to run back, but I couldn't. Fear kept me from getting out of bed. I stayed in bed and stared up at the ceiling. After a while, fatigue took its toll and I fell asleep.
The next day we packed our things and prepared to leave. The girl did not talk to me, and the training camp was dull. And I still had a feeling of fear. When we were stuffing things into the luggage departments, I ran into Zhenya, who also did not want to talk to me at first, and then said that, as promised, he went downstairs, climbed into the bushes, but then he wanted to relieve himself, and he went in deeper into the bushes. Then a wild cry of a girl rolled along the beach, and then he heard a clatter on the stairs. When he got out of the bushes, there was no one on the beach. He thought that we scared him on purpose. As a result, Zhenek was offended, the girl did not talk to me for another two days, and for some time I could not sleep at night and was shaking with horror.

Consists of living organisms, the habitats they live in, non-living structures, and how they all interact and influence each other. Marine ecosystems are found in or close to salt water, which means they can be found from the sandy beach to the deepest regions of the world's oceans. An example of a marine ecosystem is coral reef with its inhabitants (fish, sea turtles, algae, etc.), as well as water, stones and sand in the area.

Ecosystems can vary in size, but all of their components are dependent on each other - so if one part of the ecosystem is removed, it affects all the others.

The ocean covers 71% of the planet, so marine ecosystems make up the majority of the Earth. This article provides an overview of the main types of marine ecosystems, with examples of the habitats and marine organisms found in each.

Rocky coast ecosystem

Along the rocky shore, you can find rocks, small and large boulders, stones, as well as tidal pools, which are capable of supporting incredible diversity. There are also intertidal zones - areas of the coast that are flooded with sea water during high tides.

Rocky shores are extreme habitats for marine life. They are characterized by powerful waves, high winds, and constant tides that can affect water availability, temperature, and salinity. At low tide, the threat of predation to marine animals increases significantly.

Sea life of the rocky shore

Specific types of marine life depend on geographic location, but in general, some types of flora and fauna found on rocky shore, include:

• Seaweed;
• Lichens;
• birds;
• Invertebrates such as crabs, lobsters, sea ​​stars, hedgehogs, mussels, snails, sea limpets, sea squirts and sea anemones;
• Seals and sea lions.

Ecosystem of sandy beaches

Sandy beaches can seem lifeless compared to other ecosystems in the seas and oceans - at least to marine life. Most of the sandy beaches are exposed to human impact! However, they have an amazing variety.

Animal ecosystems on a sandy beach, like those on a rocky shore, must adapt to an ever-changing environment. They need to deal with tides, wave action, water currents that can sweep animals off the beach and move sand and rocks.

The marine life of a sandy beach may burrow into the sand or move quickly away from the waves. Intertidal zones are not uncommon within this ecosystem. Although the scenery is not as dramatic as on the rocky shore, tide pools can still be found left behind after the ocean recedes at low tide.

Marine life sandy beaches

Sometimes on sandy beaches you can meet sea ​​turtles, which come out of the water to lay their eggs, as well as pinnipeds such as seals and sea ​​lions vacationers on the beach.

Typical types of marine life include:

• Seaweed;
• Plankton;
• , such as amphipods, isopods, flat shield urchins, crabs, mollusks, worms, snails, flies and plankton;
• Fish, in shallow water along the beach line. These include skates, sharks, flounder, etc.;
• Birds such as plovers, gerbils, hymentoed snails, godwit, herons, terns, turntables and curlews.

Mangrove ecosystem

Areas consisting of salt-tolerant plant species. They tend to be located in warmer areas between 32° northern latitude and 38 degrees south latitude. Mangrove trees have roots that hang down into the water, providing hiding places for a variety of inhabitants, and an important refuge for young marine animals.

marine life mangroves

Species that can be found in mangrove ecosystems include:

• Seaweed;
• birds;
• Invertebrates such as crabs, shrimp, oysters, snails and insects;
• Dolphins;
• Manatees;
• reptiles such as marine and land turtles, alligators, crocodiles, caimans, snakes and lizards.

Salt marsh ecosystem

Salt marshes provide a buffer between the ocean and the mainland. These areas are flooded at low tide and contain salt-tolerant animals and plants.

Salt marshes are important in many ways: they provide habitat for marine life, migratory birds, are important nurseries for fish and various invertebrates, and protect the rest of the coast by buffering wave action and absorbing water during high tides and storms.

Marine life of salt marshes

Examples of salt marsh flora and fauna include:

• Seaweed;
• Plankton;
• birds;
• Sometimes marine mammals such as dolphins and seals.

coral reef ecosystem

Healthy coral reef ecosystems are filled with an amazing variety of life, from hard and soft corals to invertebrates of various sizes, and large animals such as sharks and dolphins.

The main part of the reef is the coral skeleton, which is composed of limestone (calcium carbonate). It supports tiny organisms called polyps. When the polyps die, they leave the skeleton behind.

marine life coral reef

• Invertebrates: hundreds of species of corals, sponges, crabs, shrimp, lobsters, anemones, worms, bryozoans, starfish, urchins, nudibranchs, octopus, squid and snails;
• : a wide variety of fish, as well as sea turtles and marine mammals such as seals and dolphins.

seaweed forest

The algae forest is quite productive ecological system. The dominant life form in this underwater forest is, you guessed it, algae. They are found in cooler waters ranging from 5 to 22°C at depths of 2 to 30 meters. This ecosystem provides food and shelter for a range of organisms.

Sea life in the seaweed forest

• Seaweed;
• Birds (gulls, terns, waders, cormorants, etc.);
• Invertebrates such as crabs, starfish, worms, anemones, snails and jellyfish;
• Fish, including sardines, garibaldi, perch, seabass, barracuda, halibut, mackerel and sharks (eg horn shark and leopard shark);
• Mammals such as sea ​​otters, sea lions, seals and whales.

polar marine ecosystem

Polar ecosystems are extremely cold oceanic waters at the Earth's poles. These regions are characterized by low temperatures and fluctuations in temperature depending on the amount of sunlight.

Marine life in polar ecosystems

• Seaweed;
• Plankton;
• Invertebrates: One of the most important invertebrates of the polar waters is the krill;
• Birds such as penguins are known for their cold hardiness, but they are found only in the Southern Hemisphere;
• Mammals such as polar bears, various types of whales, as well as seals, sea lions and walruses.

deep sea ecosystem

The term "deep sea" refers to parts of the ocean that are more than 1,000 meters deep. But compared to some areas of the ocean, this is shallow water, since the most deep areas reach about 11,000 meters in depth.

Lack of light is one of the main problems for the marine life of this ecosystem, but many animals have adapted to see in low light conditions, or do not need vision at all. Another problem is pressure. Many deep-sea dwellers have soft bodies, so they can easily endure high pressure water.

deep sea life

The depths of the ocean are difficult to explore, which is why we are still learning about the types of marine life found there. Here are some examples of the inhabitants of the deep sea:

• Invertebrates such as crabs, worms, jellyfish, squid and octopuses;
• corals;
• Fish such as anglerfish and some types of sharks;
• Mammals: sperm whales and elephant seals.

hydrothermal vents

Although typically found in the deep reaches of the ocean, hydrothermal vents serve as their own ecosystem.

These holes are underwater geysers that spew mineral-rich, very hot water into the ocean. Hydrothermal vents are located along tectonic plates where there are cracks in the earth's crust. Sea water in cracks is heated by terrestrial magma. Under pressure, water erupts and cools, and minerals are deposited around the vents.

Doesn't sound like a very cozy place to live, does it? Despite the darkness high temperature, water pressure and chemical substances, which are toxic to most other marine creatures, some organisms thrive in hydrothermal ecosystems.

Marine life at hydrothermal vents

• - microorganisms that carry out chemosynthesis, which means the conversion of chemicals around hydrothermal vents into energy. They are the backbone of the hydrothermal ecosystem;
• Invertebrates such as rifts, limpets, clams, mussels, crabs, shrimp, lobsters and octopuses;
• Fish such as eelpouts;
• Colorful coral reef near the Similan Islands, Thailand.