Marine Biome

• Intertidal Zone - oceanic region that is closest to land. With each tidal cycle, it alternates between being inundated with water and left high and dry.
• Neritic Zone - relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately 200 meters (660 ft) in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated environment for marine life, from plankton up to large fish and corals, while physical oceanography sees it as where the oceanic system interacts with the coast.
• Photic Zone - there is sufficient light for net photosynthesis to occur. Abundant phytoplankton and zooplankton support populations of fish, sea birds, and marine mammals. Nutrients are scarce and this is a relatively less productive part of the marine biome when compared to the Neritic zone.
• Aphotic Zone - The depth at which less than one percent of sunlight reaches begins the zone. While most of the ocean’s biomass lives in the photic zone, the majority of the ocean’s water lies in here. Bioluminescence is more abundant than sunlight in this zone.
• Abyssal Zone - is very cold and has very high pressure, very low or no oxygen content, and high nutrient content as the dead and decomposing material that drifts down from the layers above. There are a variety of invertebrates and fishes found in this zone, but the abyssal zone does not have photosynthetic organisms. Chemosynthetic bacteria use the hydrogen sulfide and other minerals emitted from deep hydrothermal vents.