Estuaries
Estuaries are bodies of water along our coasts that are formed when fresh water from
rivers flows into and mixes with salt water from the ocean. In estuaries, the fresh river water is blocked from streaming into the open ocean by either surrounding mainland, peninsulas, barrier islands, or fringing salt marshes. This mixing of fresh and salt water creates a unique environment that brims with all kinds of life. The estuary gathers and holds an abundance of life-giving nutrients from the land and from the ocean.
They provide a unique habitat for over 75 percent of our nation's commercial fish. This along with commercial and recreational fishing, boating and tourism provides many jobs and lots of enjoyment for those who use the area.
Estuaries are important to our quality of life and our health for reasons other than jobs, healthy economies, and recreational opportunities. The local bay or sound often serves as the focal point for community life and traditions, hosting everything from harvest festivals to busy ports. They also protect water quality, are a center for research and education, and help stem the erosion of our shoreline communities.
Estuaries come in all shapes and sizes and go by many different names, often known as bays, lagoons, harbors, inlets, or sounds. Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland, or agricultural land.
Among the cultural benefits of estuaries are recreation, scientific knowledge, education, and aesthetic values. Boating, fishing, swimming, surfing, and bird watching are just a few of the numerous recreational activities people enjoy in estuaries. These commercial...
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...ient as in a highly stratified estuary. The distinction is in the lack of saline water at the surface until it reasches the sea.
Estuarince Circulation
A feature of the stratified estuaries is that depth of the halocline (the thickness of the upper, low salinity layer) remains substantially constant from head to mouth of an estuary for a given runoff. If the estuary width does not change much, the constancy of depth of the upper layer means that the corss-sectional area of the upper layer outflow remains the same while its volume transport increases because of the entrainment of salt water from below. In consequence the speed of the ouflowing surface layer increases markedly along the estuary from head to mouth. The increase in volume and speed can be very considerable, the outflow at the mouth being as much as 10 to 20 times the volume flow of the river.
coast (as shown in pictures 1 & 2). The area of sea is subject to the
They also look after the quality of coastal waters by watering down, sifting, and settling deposits, left-over nutrients and contaminants. They are highly productive ecosystems and provide habitats and act as nurseries for all manner of life.
Eutrophication is a concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Eutrophication is caused by excessive amounts of nutrients. Excessive nutrients in the bay have negative affects on the bay's ecosystem. The extra nutrients make the environment unbalanced. The extra nutrients cause a chain reaction that depletes oxygen and kills most of the organisms in that area. This is what is known as a dead zone.
"The Long Island Sound is a national treasure, to be prized for its beauty, abundant and diverse resources, and recreational and commercial opportunities" (Long Island Sound Study). It is true that for many of the residents of the area the Long Island Sound is a source of inspiration and renewal. The Sound is widely believed to be the most substantial natural component adding to the beauty of the entire island. The Long Island Sound provides more then just beautiful scenery, but crucial natural elements that aide both human and animal residents. Despite all that the sound provides, it suffers many of the same problems as most natural features, pollution.
Today, with our understanding of how fragile the coastal areas are, there are many study and restoration projects underway. Since the implementation of the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in 1990, there have been 151 coastal restorat...
Because of farm fertilizer, an excess quantity of nitrogen and phosphorus can be wash down becoming runoff into rivers. From this, marine algal blooms cause the water to turn green from the chlorophyll (Reed, 2011). Eutrophication then becomes a dilemma in the system causing either an increase of primary production or an expansion of algae. An enormous expansion of phytoplankton on the water’s surface is then established. At the same time the water column is also stratified, meaning things such as the temperature and salinity are not sync from top to bottom. The seasonal warm surface water has a low density forming a saltier layer above while the cooler and more dense water masses near the bottom layer is isolated from the top cutting off oxygen supply from the atmosphere (Overview, 2008).
One of the Bays biggest resources is its oysters. Oysters are filter feeders which mean they feed on agley and clean the water. The oysters feed on agley and other pollutants in the bay turning them into food for them, then they condense the food down to nutrient and developed things like pearls.Filtering the water also helps the oyster to grow. One oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day, Oysters used to be able to filter the Bay in about a week. However these creatures are now scarce in the bay. The Chesapeake Bays Oyster (crassostrea virginica) Population has declined severely because of over harvesting, agricultural runoff, and disease. Now the Chesapeake Bay is becoming polluted without the oysters and the water is not nearly as clean as it once was. The Chesapeake Bay was the first estuary in the nation to be targeted for restoration as an integrated watershed and ecosystem. (Chesapeake Bay Program n/d). This report will show the cause and effect of the Chesapeake Bay's Oyster decline on the Bay.
...sica Leahy, and Kathleen Bell. "Interactions between Human Communities and Estuaries in the Pacific Northwest: Trends and Implications for Management." Estuaries. 26.4 (Aug., 2003): 994-1009 . Print.
About 94% of the estuaries and sounds in North Carolina fgully support designated uses. Agriculture, urban runoff, septic tanks, and point source discharges are the leading sources of nutrients, bacteria, and low dissolved oxygen that degrade estuaries.
Primary coasts are divided into two categories: submergent and emergent coasts. Submergent coastlines result from a general sea-level rise and crustal subsidence. Most of the eastern United States has submergent coastlines. One example is the Chesapeake Bay. Emergent coastlines result from the land being lifted, either by tectonic activity or rebound from the weight of heavy glaciers, which exposes the former sea bottom bit by bit forming continuously new shoreline.
...he preservation of these precious ecosystems so that future generations can appreciate the serenity and value of the wetlands.
Wetlands are highly productive ecosystems. Wetlands include marshes, estuaries, bogs, fens, swamps, deltas, shallow seas, and floodplains. Wetland habitats support a vast range of plant and animal life, and serve a variety of important functions, which include water regime regulation, flood control, erosion control, nursery areas for fishes, fish production, recreation, plant production, aesthetic enjoyment, and wildlife habitat. Wetlands account for about 6% of the global land area and are among the most valuable environmental resources.
Ocean water is often referred to as salt water. Ocean water becomes salty as water flows in rivers, it picks up small amount of mineral salts form rocks and soil of the riverbeds. This very-slightly salty water flows into the oceans. The water in the oceans only leaves by evaporating, but the salt remains dissolved in the ocean, it does not evaporate. So the remaining water gets saltier and saltier as time goes on.
The ocean can serve man purposes things for many different people; as a school, a home, a park...
People from all over the world go to beautiful beaches that are filled with water as clear as ice or as beautiful as diamonds. But, what will happen if we do not conserve the appealing sites that draw attraction to the public? Contaminated beaches has become a controversial issue to the public because of the causal problem, the harm to the people and marine animals, the government agencies supporting or opposing pollution, and the industries involved in creating such unlawful decisions. To create and find a solution, we must first find the core to the problem.