Organisms Found in Tide Pools

Viruses

• Viruses such as the rinderpest virus have been found in tide pools.

Bacteria

• Bacteria such as Cyanobacteria can be found in conjunction with fungi on and in rock strata found in tide pools and produce nitrogen. Rhodabacterales, a group of Proteobacteria can also be found on rock in tide pools.

Protists

• The microorganisms such as "protozoa" and micro "algae" are called protists, abound in tide pools and are primary consumer and producers in the marine food chain. They also recycle detritus materials and biomass.

Fungi

• Black meristematic fungi are found on the rocky bottoms of tide pools. They bore into the rock and cause the rock to crumble.

  Lichens are combinations of algal partners called phycobionts and a fungal partners called mycobionts and live in the spray/splash zones of tidal pools. (These are the areas which only get flooded by the storm waves and the highest tides.)

Plants

• The only angiosperm or flowering plants found submerged in tide pools are seagrass such as surf grass and eelgrass. Seaweed or marine algae that lack true roots, leaves and stems, and have a holdfasts, blades, and gas-filled bladders reside in tide pools. Some examples of marine algae are the green algae which include sea lettuce, gutweed, and dead man's fingers. Brown algae are sea potatoes, common rockweed, gulfweed, oar weed and sea palm. Other brown algae also found in tide pools include the kelp such as the feather boas kelp and giant kelp. Red algae in tide pools are coralline and the nutritious nori.

Animals

• Chordates, those animals having back bones and are bilaterally symmetrical, such as sculpins, blenny, killfish and yellow spongefish, are found in low and mid-level tide pools. Sea stars, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins, Echinoderms having spiny skin, tube feet, live on the ocean floor and are radially symmetrical are also found the low and mid-levels of tide pools. Mollusks such as the octopus, chiton, mussel, scallop, abalone, limpet, and snail are found in all levels of tide pools while the sea anemone can often be seen in mid-level or low-level tide pools.