What is a salt marsh ecosystem?
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Herein, what is a salt marsh and how is it formed?
Salt marsh. Salt marshes form when mudflats are raised to the level of the average high tide. The accumulation of mud is most common in estuaries where the river brings fine-grained sediment to slack water but where wave action cannot rework the settled mud.
Subsequently, question is, what climate are salt marshes found in? While broadly distributed, salt marshes are most common in temperate and higher latitudes where the temperature of the warmest month is >0 °C. Closer to the equator, where the mean temperatures of the coldest months are >20 °C, salt marshes are generally replaced by mangroves.
Then, what kind of plants are in a salt marsh?
The most common salt marsh plants are glassworts (Salicornia spp.) and the cordgrass (Spartina spp.), 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.
What would it be like to live in a salt marsh?
Salt Marshes suit many species. The marsh is crawling with hundreds of kinds of invertebrates. Fiddler crabs, hermit crabs and stone crabs join snails, mussels and worms in finding food and shelter in the salt marsh. Fish and shrimp come into salt marshes looking for food or for a place to lay their eggs.