Salt marshes, usually mistaken for a mosquito infested mud pits, have a higher purpose than what the human population gives them credit for. Salt marshes are a unique ecosystem that makes home to many different species of vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. Salt marsh ecosystem’s serve as nursery grounds for many juvenile game fish such as red fish and black drum and are also home to a very important commercial fish, the bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli). The salt marsh ecosystems also serve as a buffer by filtering the pollution out of our waters. Human industrialization is currently filling in the areas where these salt marshes are inhabited and is altering our coastline significantly. Many efforts are being made to help restore the salt marshes through rehabilitation, re-vegetation, and if needed re-creation. Once a salt marsh has been completely destroyed, despite the best efforts, that ecosystem will no longer function as well as it once did.
Salt marshes occur within the upper intertidal zone between open water and low-energy shorelines. They are periodically flooded by high tide and stay continuously flooded even at low tide. These ecosystems are found in more temperate regions and can range from Europe, Asia, America, Australia and Africa (Katrien, 2009). In North America, salt marshes are located through out New England becoming more abundant in New Jersey and stretching down to the Carolina’s. Once you get into south Florida mangroves, swamps dominated by mangrove species, replace the salt marshes. Salt marshes are found where small amounts of sediments are able to accumulate and secure a foundation so the vegetation can hold onto. The salt marsh vegetation is under water for most of the year and takes in high amo...
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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, then they condense the food down to nutrients and sometimes developed pearls. Filtering the water helps the oysters to grow, and also helps clean the Chesapeake Bay. 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.
Westfields, a medium sized wetland region, is located on the outskirts of Limerick city and within the floodplain of the River Shannon (CAAS (Environmental Services) Ltd., 1999). Wetland regions are broadly defined within the Ramsar Convention (1971, 1), as, “areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.” Identified as some of the most diverse habitats on earth, wetlands are also under severe threat, with a “10% decrease in their area occurring worldwide between the years 1990 and 2006” (CORINE, 2006). Westfields is no exception. Known worldwide for the diverse flora and fauna, in particular avifauna, that are present, the area has seen a dramatic decrease in size from its traditional expansive domain to a present area of twenty-six hectares. Thus, this essay aims to examine in detail the biogeographic merits of these declining wetland regions in particular Westfields, record the current condition of this particular wetland, and explore potential ideas for future conservation.
The Long Island Sound is an estuary, and is in fact one of the largest in the world. An estuary is a place where salt water from the ocean mixes with fresh water from the rivers that drain from the land. Moreover, like other estuaries, the Long Island Sound has an abundance of fish and other waterfowl that add to the natural balance of the island, as well as one of the most important economic factors (Tedesco). Like other estuaries around the world, the Sound provides breeding, feeding, nesting, and nursery areas for many species that will spend most of their adult lives in the oceans (Long Island Sound Study). Despite these similarities to other estuaries, the Long Island Sound is unique from anywhere else in the world. Unlike other estuaries, the Long Island Sound does not just have one connection to the sea but it has two. It has two major sources of fresh water flowing into the bay that empty into the ocean. It combines this two-...
The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary with six major tributaries, the James, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Patuxent, the York, and the Rappahannock Rivers, feeding into the bay from various locations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (Chemical Contaminants in the Chesapeake Bay – Workshop Discussion 1). These areas depend on the Bay as both an environmental and an economic resource. Throughout the last 15 years the Chesapeake Bay has suffered from elevated levels of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater treatment plants, farmland, air pollution, and development all lead to reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, which harm fish, crabs, oysters and underwater grasses (Key Commission Issues 1). There are other types of pollution in the bay such as toxic chemicals, but because nutrient pollution is the most significant and most widespread in the Bay its effects are the most harmful to fisheries. Nitrogen and phosphorous fuel algal blooms which cloud the water and block sunlight from reaching underwater grass beds that provide food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue crabs, and other species (Blankenship 11-12). Algae plays a vital role in the food chain by providing food for small fish and oysters. However, when there is an overabundance of algae it dies, sinks to the bottom of the Bay, and decomposes in such a manner that depletes the oxygen levels of the Bay (11). The reduced oxygen levels in the Bay reduce the carrying capacity of the environment and these “dead areas” sometimes kill off species that can not migrate to other areas of the Bay, such as oysters (11). Increased abundance of algal blooms also led to the overabundance of harmful and toxic algae species and microbes such as the microbe Pfiesteria, which was responsible in 1997 for eating fish alive and making dozens of people sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be contracted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species.
The Chesapeake Bay plays host to an astonishing amount of plant and animal life, providing much of our fish intake for species that aren’t being overfished. For the species that are being overdrawn, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is working to restore the populations, and it’s going well thus far. Another theme that is endangering the marine life populations as well as the health of the human population is the massive amount of polluti...
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.
Marshes - An area of soft, wet, low-lying land, characterized by grassy vegetation and o...
The Florida Keys is one of the most famous and most visited archipelagos in the world. Contrary to what many people think, though, the Florida Keys do not begin at Key Largo. To the north lie nearly 50 more keys (ancient coral reef islands) that are mostly undeveloped pieces of land. Great adventures await you as you venture from the mangrove shoreline out to the coral reefs of Biscayne Bay. Biscayne Bay is a shallow estuary, managed by the National Park Services along with Florida Wildlife Commission and many others. The bay serves as a nursery for many infant and juvenile marine life species that need protection until big enough to survive in the open ocean. Large healthy seagrass beds provide hiding places and food for many of the animals living on the reef. Protected by a chain of islands or keys off shore and the mainland to the west, the bay is one of the most productive ecosystems in the park. It is comprised of four different ecosystems; the two major ecosystems are beneath the bay 's clear waters: hardbottom and seagrass.
The Chesapeake Bay is a very large estuary that holds more than eighteen trillion gallons of water (“The Bay Watershed”). This large estuary is part of six of the different states of Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia (“Chesapeake Bay Program”). Some characteristics of the bay are salinity, temperature, and circulation. The bay watershed is home to seventeen million people and gains more people each year, so it is no wonder why there are pollution problems (“Chesapeake Bay Program”). The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and is diverse with life. Though the bay is filled with life, it faces many problems caused by humans.
Fish, birds, and humans have been affected by the decaying Salton Sea. “In the 1990s and 2000s, repeated die-offs left millions of fish floating on the surface and washing
Over the past 100 years the Louisiana coastline has suffered greatly from biotic, abiotic, and anthropogenic factors. The abiotic factors include things such as hurricanes or overnutrition that influence the surrounding biota. The biotic factors that contribute to coastal erosion are things like the immigration invasive species and the emigration or extinction of local flora and fauna that help preserve the wetlands. Additionally, there are anthropogenic factors such as pollution that can have strong negative influences on the abiotic and biotic factors of the wetlands. Each one of these factors cause ecological disturbances to the wetlands at a frequency and intensity that is unmanageable for the local flora and fauna. There are currently certain measures that are being taken into consideration to slow or stop the erosion of the Louisiana coastline.
Globally coastal wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate, the problem is most of society does not realize the value of these precious wetlands. Coastal wetlands provide an important role in the coastal ecosystem. “Coastal wetlands provide critical services such as absorbing energy from coastal storms, preserving shorelines, protecting human populations and infrastructure, supporting commercial seafood harvests, absorbing pollutants and serving as critical habitat for migratory bird populations”(Anonymous, 2011). Coastal wetlands are an economical asset as well as an environmental one.
salt marsh habitats. Once a marsh has built up to such a level that it
Analysis of sites in five coastal states indicate that many marshes and mangrove ecosystems receive adequate mineral sediments to produce enough organic sediment and root material to remain above sea level at the present rate of sea-level rise (1-2 mm per year globally). However, three of the twelve wetlands studied were not keeping pace with the current rate of sea-level rise. If sea-level rise accelerates, some additional sites would also begin to slowly deteriorate and submerge.
Seagrass is on the decline around the world and it is an extremely vital marine ecosystem found in shallow water mainly distributed throughout tropical seas, from a temperature around 4oC to 24oC (Green and Short 2003). They are the only true flowering plant (angiosperm) to live in aquatic conditions providing support and shelter for vast amounts of species (Orth et al. 2006; Jackson et al. 2001). They are a marine aquatic plant and a keystone species for many coastal areas found all over the world (Libralato, Christensen and Pauly 2006). Although there is not a huge variety of species, there are only around 60 species globally and over 14% of them are endangered (Green and Short 2003; Orth et al. 2006). The different seagrass ecosystems perform relatively similarly throughout the varying species (Turner and Schwarz 2006). This study will examine the various importances of seagrass and to what extent they are vital for the survival of species within their ecosystem. In addition to this, the role of seagrass in important ecosystem processes will be examined. The abundance of coastal regions are closely linked with seagrasses as they greatly contribute to productivity. Seagrass meadows are highly productive and are ideal for nurseries and providing a relatively safe habitat and shelter from predators (Hughes et al. (2008).