Tides

a. What is tidal range?
The difference in water level between successive high and low tides.
b. What causes high and low tides?
Tides are caused because of the gravitational pull of the moon and sun towards the earth. Large and small bulges are created. Large bulges are called high tides and the smaller bulges are called low tides.
c. What causes Spring and Neap tides?
Spring tides happen when the tidal range, or the difference in water level between successive high and low tides, is large. Neap tides happen when the tidal range is small.
d. How does tidal range effect the types of organisms and the shape and size of the organisms?
Organisms, due to the effect of tidal range, can either dies or live. Most of the effects of the tides on organisms living in these areas are due to the exposure to air. Another main problem is dehydration. Some strategies for survival in this area are to move into a moist are in order to maintain water. Also to move to a sheltered are protected from the sun and the crashing of the waves. Some organism protect their body with a protective layer. They either hide from tubes and other places or produce something like mucus to protect themselves.Organisms that have light colored shells don't absorb the heat as fast but rather reflect it. Having ridges on the shells also keep the organisms cooler as the texture of having a ridged shell helps reflect most light and sun rays. (note.. my answer is based on a paragraph from http://home.earthlink.net/~huskertomkat/tides.html)

Other than the bad effects, tidal range can have good effects too. High tides means that there's a lot of food that were once hard to reach when it was low tide. It is also the time to lay eggs. Some fishes lay eggs during high tides, and the eggs usually hatch when the high tides comes the next time around. The high tides help them swim from the shallow shores to the beaches.