at Stångehuvud                                  

To the page about vegetation

The granite landscape of Stångehuvud switches in many places to rocky shores that drop more or less steeply into the sea. One example is the beaches at Kramkistan and Kramkistesund (photo to the right).
Next to the water medium level is usually a typical black belt, which consists of either a blue-green bacteria or of a lichen. Observe that this belt becomes very slippery when wet.

Above the black belt the granite is usually completely bare. There are no species that have managed to colonize this vulnerable environment. Higher up there is a zonation of different kinds of crust and leaves lichens. A lichen of typical yellow-orange color is often one of the more prominent, especially where the rocks are exposed to bird droppings. Several grayish lichen can be found higher up from the shore.

Adjacent to the shoreline at many rocky shores even barnacles are found in a characteristic whitish belt.

Near the shore of the rock and boulder beaches seaweed and other algae species grow in a more or less prominent zonation.

Read more about algae in the beach zone

In the accumulations of dead seaweed at the rock and boulder beaches, one can find talitridae, a species belonging to the crustaceans. If you lift the seaweed washed up on the shore, there are often a large amount of talitridae who immediately starts to move. Talitridae are about 1-2 cm long, have a gray-black skin and can jump almost a meter! They can achieve this by folding their tail under themselves and then scraping with it against the ground.
In the summer, at the water's edge, both in the water and just above the waterline, you will often find jellyfish of different colours and sizes washed ashore

Read more about jellyfish

Your can read more about the life in the shore zone in ”Aqua scope”, which has been constructed by Tjärnö marine biological laboratory at the university of Gothenburg.