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A coast – also called the coastline, shoreline, or seashore – is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. [1] [2] Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape, as well as by water induced erosion, such as waves.
The shape of coastlines can be influenced by biological processes. Since the 1990s, biogeomorphology has developed as an established research field examining the interrelationship between organisms and geomorphic processes in a variety of environments, both marine, and terrestrial. [1]
A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Worldwide there is about 620,000 kilometres (390,000 mi) of coastline. Coastal habitats extend to the margins of the continental shelves, occupying about 7 percent of the ocean surface area.
The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. [1] In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas that are permanently submerged — known as the foreshore — and the terms are often used interchangeably.
A marine habitat is a habitat that supports marine life.Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea (the term marine comes from the Latin mare, meaning sea or ocean).
Intertidal zone biomass reduces the risk of shoreline erosion from high intensity waves. [4] Typical inhabitants of the intertidal rocky shore include sea urchins , sea anemones , barnacles , chitons , crabs , isopods , mussels , starfish , and many marine gastropod molluscs such as limpets and whelks .
The Ballantine scale is a biologically defined scale for measuring the degree of exposure level of wave action on a rocky shore. Devised in 1961 by W. J. Ballantine, then at the zoology department of Queen Mary University of London, London, U.K., the scale is based on the observation that where shoreline species are concerned "Different species growing on rocky shores require different degrees ...
Buoyancy-forced downwelling, often termed convection, is the deepening of a water parcel due to a change in the density of that parcel.Density changes in the surface ocean are primarily the result of evaporation, precipitation, heating, cooling, or the introduction and mixing of an alternate water or salinity source, such as river input or brine rejection.