An Atlantic coastal salt marsh in Connecticut. Connecticut ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America.

A weed salt marsh in the Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center in Brooklyn, New York. Marine Park Brooklyn is a Public park located in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous

A salt marsh is a type of marsh that is a transitional intertidal between land and salty or brackish water (e. In Geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of Wetland which is subject g. , sloughs, bays, estuaries). It is dominated by halophytic (salt tolerant) herbaceous plants. biosalinity|halophile A halophyte is a Plant that naturally grows where it is affected by Salinity in the root area or by salt spray such as in saline semi-deserts A(n herb (ˈhɝb or /ˈɝb/ see pronunciation differences) is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties flavor scent or the like Historically, salt marshes have sometimes been treated as "wastelands", along with other wetlands. We now know that salt marshes are one of the most biologically productive habitats on the planet, rivaling tropical rainforests. This is partly due to the daily tidal surges that bring in nutrients, the natural chemical activity of salty (or brackish) water, the tendency of nutrients to settle in roots of the plants there, and the tendency of algae to bloom in the shallow unshaded water. A nutrient is food or chemicals that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment Salt marshes also provide a benefit by protecting against severe weather, such as in the North American Gulf Coast. In the past, substantial areas of saltmarsh have been reclaimed as agricultural land and for urban development, but in the US and Europe they are now accorded a high level of protection by the Clean Water Act and the Habitats Directive respectively. The Clean Water Act is the primary Federal law in the United States governing Water pollution. The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a European Union directive There is growing interest in restoring salt marshes, through managed retreat or through the reclaimation of lands used for other purposes by salt marsh vegetation. In the context of Coastal erosion, managed retreat (also managed realignment allows an area that was not previously exposed to flooding by the sea to become flooded by removing

Conditions required

Salt marshes develop on depositional coasts, shorelines, bays, and estuaries where tidal action is relatively gentle and erosion no more than intermittent and light enough to allow vegetation to take hold. They are common on low-energy coasts such as estuaries, enclosed bays, and the land sides of barrier islands and strips (Spits). An estuary is a semi-enclosed Coastal body of Water with one or more Rivers or Streams flowing into it and with a free connection to the open A shoal or sandbar (also called sandbank) is a somewhat Linear Landform within or extending into a body of Water,

Vegetation

A grass salt marsh in the Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center in Brooklyn, New York. Marine Park Brooklyn is a Public park located in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous

Plant species diversity is relatively low, since the flora must be tolerant of salt, complete or partial submersion, and anoxic mud substrate. The most common salt marsh plants are glassworts (Salicornia spp. The common name Glasswort came into use in the 16th Century to describe plants growing in England whose ashes could be used for making soda-based (as opposed to Potash ) and the cord grasses (Spartina spp. Spartina, commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, contains 14 Species, native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern ), which have worldwide distribution. They are often the first plants to take hold in a mudflat and begin its ecological succession into a salt marsh. Mudflats (also tidal flats, tide flats, etc are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in Ecology, refers to more-or-less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community Their shoots lift the main flow of the tide above the mud surface while their roots spread into the substrate and stabilize the sticky mud and carry oxygen into it so that other plants can establish themselves as well. Plants such as sea lavenders (Limonium spp. Sea-lavender (also Sea Lavender, Sealavender) or Statice is any of 120 species of Flowers in the Genus Limonium ), plantains (Plantago spp. Plantago is a Genus of about 200 species of small inconspicuous plants commonly called plantains. ), and varied sedges and rushes grow once the mud has been vegetated by the pioneer species. The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocot Flowering plants that superficially resemble grasses or rushes The Juncaceae, or the Rush Family, is a rather small monocot Flowering plant family A pioneer species are Species which colonizes previously uncolonized land usually leading to Ecological succession.

The flora of a salt marsh is differentiated into levels according to the plants' individual tolerance of salinity and water table levels. Vegetation found at the water must be able to survive high salt concentrations, periodical submersion, and a certain amount of water movement, while plants further inland in the marsh can sometimes experience dry, low-nutrient conditions.

Salt marshes are quite photosynthetically active and are extremely productive habitats. They serve as depositories for a large amount of organic matter, and are full of decomposition, which feeds a broad food chain of organisms from bacteria to mammals. Interestingly (in such a biologically productive biome), many of the halophytic plants such as cordgrass are not grazed at all by higher animals, but die off and decompose, to become food for micro-organisms, which in turn become food for fish and birds. A biome is a climatically and geographically defined area of ecologically similar climatic conditions such as communities of Plants Animals and

In wintertime the saltmarsh looks more open than in summer. More space is seen between reeds as snow falls between them. The water partly freezes, which makes it look rather spectacular.

Marais salants

In warmer climates, salt can be produced by solar energy so that the French equivalent of the salt marsh, the marais salant has come to be envisaged primarily as an industrial plant, though classified as a form of agriculture, known in French as saliculture. For this aspect of the salt marsh, see Salt evaporation pond. Salt evaporation ponds are shallow man-made Ponds designed to produce Salt from Sea water.

Wetland dieback

A walkway for people over a salt-marsh.

Main article: Salt marsh dieback

In the summer and fall of 2002, Ron Rozsa of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, noticed the sudden (within one year) disappearance of emergent vegetation at several south shore Cape Cod wetlands connected to Nantucket Sound. Salt marsh dieback, or salt marsh browning is the primary force in Salt marsh degradation The vegetation loss could not be explained by any typical New England causes of vegetation loss such as ice, wrack or herbivory (e. g. , geese or muskrat). [1]

Four years later, the cause is still unknown, but there are 17 suspected dieback marshes on Cape Cod, and a few other possible sites are on the North and South Shore, according to the Wetland Restoration Program of the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. Cape Cod (or simply the Cape to most New Englanders is a Peninsula nearly coextensive with Barnstable County Massachusetts and forming the easternmost

In Louisiana, 300,000 acres (1200 km²) turned brown around the year 2000. In 2002, researchers noticed that about 2,000 acres (8 km²) of salt marsh in Georgia turned to mud, similar to what is happening in New England. But as of mid-2006, the Louisiana and Georgia marshes are growing back -- or at least not getting worse -- while marshes on the Cape do not seem to be recovering naturally. [2]

See also

External links

A salt marsh in the Marine Park Nature Center in Brooklyn, New York, after a snow melt. A bayou (pronounced oʊ or uː is a small slow-moving Stream or creek or a lake or pool ( bayou lake) that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream This article is about a conservation biology topic For other uses of BAP see BAP (disambiguation. A body of water is any significant accumulation of Water, usually covering the Earth or another planet A bog or mire is a Wetland type that accumulates Acidic Peat, a deposit of dead plant material &ndash usually Mosses but also A fen is a type of Wetland fed by surface and/or groundwater Fens are characterized by their water chemistry which is neutral or Alkaline Fens are different In Electrical engineering, a ground plane is an electrically conductive surface. Mangroves (generally are Trees and Shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the Tropics and Subtropics. In Geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of Wetland which is subject The Mesopotamian Marshes are a Wetland area located in Southern Iraq bordering Iran. Seagrasses (or sea-grasses in British English) are Flowering plants from one of four plant families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, A swamp is a Wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous

• Geography resource for schools
• Salt Marsh Nature Center located in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, New York, USA
• Marine Nature Study Area operated by the Town of Hempstead: Dept. See also Marine reserve as many areas called parks are wholly or partly marine conservation reserves A marine park is a Park consisting of Conservation & Waterways, located in Oceanside, New York, USA