Faunal Adaptations: The most common organisms in the intertidal zone are small and uncomplicated. They must adapt to survive the constant pounding of waves and extreme temperatures.
Mussels: Animals like crabs and snails have shells to protect them from the sun light during low tide. Mussels group tightly together to reduce individual exposure to sunlight. Preventing their water store from drying up faster.
Sea Stars: Sea stars have developed to grip tightly to rocks over the years, preventing them from being swept up on shore or farther into the ocean.
Abalones: Abalones don't have many known predators other than seastars. Though abalones have developed to smell approaching ochre sea stars, a main predator of their's, and move away when they feel threatened.
Hermit Crabs: Another organism found here is the hermit crab, which because of its portable home in the form of a shell does extremely well as it is sheltered from the high temperature range to an extent and can also carry water with it in its shell. Consequently there is generally a higher population of hermit crabs to common crabs in the high tide zone.
Sea Cucumbers: Sea cucumbers don't have many predators, but if they feel threatened the will expel their insides, leaving their organs for the predator. They will grow back in several days time.
Snails: Periwinkle snails have adapted to excrete a mucus when the tide is low. To avoid drying out they hide in the crevices between rocks. The mucus helps trap the water stored in their shell from evaporating and drying up in the sun and allows them to stick to the rocks without being pulled out to sea.
Floral or Fungal Adaptations:
Kelp: Waves can hit the intertidal zone with a lot of force, plants must be able to protect themselves. Kelp have a root system called a holdfast, it attaches itself to rocks, or mussels and keeping itself stuck on the ground even against strong waves.
Strap Weed: Strap weed have a bladder at the end of their short stalks and not on their leaves. This allows them to keep most of their body near the surface of the water. The bladder makes sure the stalk stands up straight allowing it to receive more sunlight.
Sea Lettuce: Sea lettuce has a relatively high surface-to-volume ratio meaning it can grow very fast in nutrient-rich water. In contrast to most other seaweeds, they can tolerate harsh conditions even after being exposed by low tides. Explaining why they can grow both on shore and deeper down.
Green Seaweeds: The green pigment in these seaweeds is typically used to trap sunlight in the plant for future photosynthesis. This stored energy is used later when sunlight is not reached or when submerged during high tide.
Surf Grass:Sea grasses are able to reproduce in an aquatic medium. This adaptation is called hydrophilly, a unique process to aquatic plants. It allows the surf grass to perform both surface and completely submerged pollination.
Coralline Algae: Coralline algae is classed as a red algae. Red algae is unique because it has adapted to be able to photosynthesise not only in light but also in darkness and at night. Meaning that coralline algae can still thrive in the varying levels of the intertidal zones, in both deep and shallow water.