estuaries
DESCRIPTION
Estuaries. Estuaries. Estuaries are partially enclosed coastal bodies of water Examples of estuaries include: River mouths Bays Inlets Gulfs Sounds Formed by a rise in sea level after the last Ice Age. Southern California Watersheds. Classifying estuaries by origin. Coastal plain - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Estuaries
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Estuaries• Estuaries are partially enclosed coastal bodies of
water• Examples of estuaries include:
– River mouths– Bays– Inlets– Gulfs– Sounds
• Formed by a rise in sea level after the last Ice Age
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Southern California Watersheds
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Classifying estuaries by origin
• Coastal plain• Fjord• Bar-built• Tectonic
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Examples of estuaries
Pu‘uloa
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Examples of estuaries
Fjord estuary (Norway)
Tectonic estuary (San Francisco, CA)
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Coastal wetlands• Coastal wetlands are saturated
areas that border coastal environments
• Brackish water conditions• Two most important types of coastal
wetlands:1. Salt marshes (mid-latitudes)2. Mangrove swamps (low latitudes)
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Coastal wetlands: Salt marshes and mangrove swamps
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Salt Marshes are dominated
by dense stands of halophytic
(salt-tolerant) plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs.
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These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability
of the salt marsh in
trapping and binding
sediments.
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Infauna: • live within the sediment, mostly soft bottom; • mostly clams and worms (polychaetes) • burrow tubes for food scavenging and oxygen
supply• Primary producers: algae, mostly benthic
diatoms and dinoflagellates • cyanobacteria mats on mudflats • mud more productive than sand• macro- and meiobenthos, often detrivores,
living of deposits from seagrasses and marshes
• birds important grazers
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32,000 polychaetes in sand/m2vs
50-500 earth worms in soil/m2
Ecological Role:• clean sediments • aerate soil
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• Found from the Arctic to Southern Australia
• Salt marshes grow in muds and sands that are sheltered by barrier islands.
• Flood and ebb currents transport saltwater, nutrients, plankton and sediments in and out of the marsh.
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Salt marshes play a large role in the aquatic food web and the
exporting of nutrients to coastal waters.
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They also provide support to terrestrial animals such as
migrating birds as well as providing coastal protection