Salt Marsh

Question 1

What is a salt marsh?

Answer 1

• costal wetland
• upper intertidal zone
• protected from was action
• plants tolerant of wet aline soils
• salinities down to 5ppt
• often in estuaries (fresh and salt meet)
• ** away from severe wave action….plants tend to be really tolerant to saltuu soil and wet conditions from influx of salt water

Question 2

they are hypoxic?

Answer 2

low oxygen .

Question 3

They have high/low productivity?

Answer 3

• high
• *used as nursery ground
• important for migrating shorebirds and waterfowl
• *develop between terrestrial and marine environment
• not a whole lot of species there …bc they have to be very well adapted

Question 4

A lot of __ in system

Answer 4

nutrients …so you get high productivity of plant life

Question 5

high marsh?

Answer 5

• most tides do not reach this..the highest spring tide will come up into the marsh but norm ones do not
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Question 6

Low marsh?

Answer 6

mean high water and mean spiring water…

Question 7

tidal creek?

Answer 7

hit daily via tides

Question 8

How do salt marshes form?

Answer 8

1. start with tidal flat without vegetation
2. few plants colonize
   (smooth cordgrass)

tend to like low energy environments
form where there is shelter from wind and wave action
require a large input of sediments within the system - arrive from both oceans and rivers
estuaries = really common area of formation
most likely place on a coastline is a place where there is a tidal flat …there is a good chance that it will become a salt marsh..over time sediment accumulates building up the elevation especially in mid and high marsh limiting the amount of salt water coming in to the systems (costal accretion ) and limits the time salt water is up there as well
this decrease in tidal flooding allows plant growth in the environment…this is when we really begin to think of it as a salt marsh…..vascular plants are the ones that first begin to grow there which are halophytic (plants that really love the salt environment…capable of surviving under water for prolonged periods of time…including a species of cord grass…..spartina alterniflora which tends to be the first one coming into the area….and highly in low marsh) They increase the trapping of sediment

Question 9

Cordgrass?

Answer 9

• critical role in marsh development since it can colonize and bind together anoxic sentiment and enhance sedimentation with its aboveground
• highly tolerant of anoxic soils and high salinity
• aggressive drunk rhizomes lead to rapid clonal expansion
• *helps the environment becomes more table
• *runners allowed

Question 10

How are salt marshes formed?

Answer 10

-as surface arises more plants colonize

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Question 11

How are salt marshes formed?

Answer 11

-eventually surface fully vegetated except drainage channels and depression

Question 12

panne vs pan

Answer 12

panne: salt wate rpond

that is not an area of that is extremely high involiunteer .