Littoral zone

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This article is about the coastal region. For other uses, see Littoral (disambiguation).

Littoral refers to the coast of an ocean or sea, or to the banks of a river, lake or estuary. It is usually used as an adjective, but may also be used as a noun. The littoral zone is defined as the area between the high water and low water marks. The word is derived from the Latin Littor, which means "shore".

Dunes in littoral of Buenos Aires province, NASA 389 km altitude

In lakes, where tides are usually negligibly small, other definitions of "littoral" must be used. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources defines littoral as that portion of the lake that is less than 15 feet in depth.^[1] This zone is home to most of the aquatic plantlife (both rooted and floating) in a pond or lake because the high amount of sunlight reaching it allows for significant photosynthetic activity.

The adjacency of water gives a number of distinctive characteristics to littoral regions. Water's erosive power results in particular types of landforms, such as sand dunes, and estuaries. The natural movement of the littoral along the coast is called the littoral drift. Biologically, the ready availability of water enables a greater variety of plant and animal life, and the additional local humidity due to evaporation usually creates a microclimate supporting unique types of organisms.

The littoral zone is bordered by the supra-littoral zone, also known as the "spray zone", and the sublittoral zone, which runs to the edge of the continental shelf.