Background

Tidal Pools are located in the intertidal zone. Woongarra Marine Park with its volcanic basalt substrate provides an ideal environment for the formation of tidal or rock pools.

Each tidal pool is a unique micro-habitat controlled by factors such as height on the shore (and hence tidal influence), size, depth, temperature, salinity and the interactions between the flora and fauna contained within. Many of these factors interact - for example a pool located on the upper shore with low tidal influence may in turn experience high temperatures, high water evaporation and hence high salinity.

It is these factors which largely influence which organisms will be able to survive in each discrete tidal pool. Tidal Pool organisms are often those which are able to withstand a greater variation in environmental factors than those experienced in the open ocean.

The tidal pool study, which is in conjunction with other monitoring being carried out by both the Woongarra Marine Park Monitoring & Education Project and Rocky Reef Watch, will look initially at three study sites - Barolin Rocks, Hoffman's Rocks and Mon Repos.

Each site is visited twice annually to assess seasonal variation.

Information gathered by volunteers will be used to provide a typical tide pool index for the site with the number of species of plants (algae and seagrasses), invertebrates and vertebrates or fish.

NEXT