What Is the Natural Habitat of Sharks?
With over 500 known species inhabiting every ocean of the planet, sharks have evolved to thrive in a variety of temperatures, depths and salt concentrations. Sharks are important predators that help keep the balance of the habitats in which they live. Many sharks can be found sharing a few distinctly different habitats.
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Continental Shelf
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Most of the shark species in the world inhabit the relatively shallow regions over the continental shelf, where rivers deposit nutrients into the ocean, which in turn feed the microorganisms on the base of the food pyramid. Sharks that inhabit this food-rich environment include the filter-feeding whale shark as well as the super-predator known as the great white. Other sharks found here include hammerheads, blue sharks, pacific sleeper sharks, basking sharks and sharpnose sharks.
Coral Reefs
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The temperate, shallow waters of barrier reefs attract many sharks with their ample food supplies. Frequently found near reef ecosystems are tiger sharks, lemon sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, gray reef sharks, blacktip sharks and whitetip sharks.
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Ocean Floors
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Bottom-dwelling sharks scavenge and hunt the plentiful resources near the ocean floor's relatively shallow waters. Such species include the nurse shark, the angel shark, the zebra shark and the dogfish shark.
Deep Sea
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The deep sea is the most unexplored part of the ocean. Animals that live in the deep sea have adapted to lack of light, extremes of temperatures and intense water pressure. There are a few known shark species that live at these depths, including the goblin shark, the Greenland shark and the six-gill shark.
Fresh Water
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Surprisingly, some sharks can adapt to living in freshwater. The bull shark often travels into rivers and tributaries in search of food. According to National Geographic News, bull sharks have been spotted 2,500 miles up the Amazon River in South America, and there is a stable population of bull sharks living in Lake Nicaragua, a freshwater lake in Central America. Bull sharks have traveled up the Mississippi River as far as Illinois and are regularly spotted in the Ganges in India. Other sharks with this unique ability are the endangered speartooth shark and the northern river shark.
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References
- Photo Credit Shark image by Rick Chesler from Fotolia.com
