by Marisol Dayton

Created on: July 24, 2011   Last Updated: July 25, 2011

Oceans are a vast, mysterious place for many people, a watery part of earth that represents recreation by boat or beach.  Like land masses, however, oceans teem with life and have many different habitats to support the millions of creatures that live within the shallows and depths.  Though some of these habitats have been well-studied and are well-known, others are as mysterious as the surface of the moon.  The following is a basic guide to ocean habitats.

Beaches are one of the most well-known of the ocean habitats.  Though many people picture beaches as flat, white, sandy places to sunbathe, they actually have distinctive characteristics.  A beach’s topography includes offshore bars – what many people refer to as sand bars or shoals, which help protect beaches from erosion; the foreshore, otherwise known as the part of the beach that rises from the water; and a berm further back onshore.  Sand dunes are one type of berm.  Beaches are home to a variety of creatures.  Microscopic animals such as bacteria and diatoms live within the sand.  Turtles, fish, shore birds, and aquatic mammals also call beaches home.

Coasts are another well-known ocean habitat.  Beaches are a kind of coast, but coasts include any kind of shoreline such as rocky coasts and river deltas.  Coasts are divided into two kinds, depending on how they are formed.  Primary coasts are created by non-oceanic processes, such as river deltas and lava flows.  Primary coasts can further be divided into submergent and emergent coasts. 

A submergent coastline is one created by sea level rise whereas an emergent coast results from the land rising from tectonic activity.  Secondary coasts are created by oceanic processes, such as the emergence of barrier islands or coral reefs.  Examples of secondary coasts are mud flats, sea cliffs, and salt marshes.  Coasts are home to many of the same creatures that inhabit beaches – birds, aquatic mammals, turtles and microscopic animals.

Another popular and well-known ocean habitat is the coral reef.  These habitats are found primarily in warm tropical waters, particularly in the Caribbean Sea, Indian Ocean, and South Pacific Ocean.  Coral reefs are living habitats.  The reef is built over hundreds of thousands of years by tiny polyps that live within a limestone cup.  As polyps die, the cups are left behind and other polyps build on top

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