A
marine habitat inside the
pelagic zone, but not quite part of the
oceanic zone. Commonly used as a synonym for the
neritic zone, it could be more accurately described as the area extending from just below the lowest
low tide to just before the
continental break-- that is, the break between the
continental shelf and the
continental slope; generally about 200 meters down.
The subtidal zone is a fairly diverse soft-bottom habitat, home to a wide range of benthic, epibenthic, infaunal, semi-infaunal, and nekton organisms.