Coastal Oceans are waters that lie above the continental shelf. This is where most of fish come from, where the coral reefs grow and we we swim and play. In fact, while the oceans cover 71% of Earth, only 7% of that makes up the coastal oceans. This small strip of land is affected adversely by humans in many ways including: over-fishing, industrial pollution, and agricultural runoff. These practices may in turn affect us as fish availability varies, algal blooms occasionally occur, and water quality fluctuates through time. Overall, coastal oceans can be generalized more easily by dividing them up into temperate and tropical coastal areas. For our video, we chose to examine the temperate Coastal Oceans around the west coast of Sweden
In this short video we travel to Sweden to take a look at temperate coastal oceans. We looked at three animals in this habitat - lobsters, sea pens and jellyfish.
Coastal oceans in tropical areas have similar characteristics to their temperate counterparts. However, there are certain habitats in the tropics that are not found in the temperate regions of Earth. A great example of this is the coral reef [1].
Coral reefs [1] are biologically diverse and rich habitats that occur in relatively nutrient poor environments along coastlines. Areas that have too many nurients often harbor too much algal growth to sustain coral growth. To learn more about the coral reef [1] we have set up an entire page dedicated entirely to this tropical coastal biome [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.untamedscience.com/biology/world-biomes/coral-reefs-biome