Estuaries Study Guide

What type of estuary is the Cheseapeake Bay?

Drowned river valley or coastal plain estuary

Another name for a coastal plain estuary is ________.

Drowned river valley

What are examples of a coastal plain estuary

Chesapeake Bay, Hudson River

Define an estuary.

A semi-enclosed body of water, with a permanent or temporary connection to the sea, where fresh and saltwater mix.

Regarding geomorphological classification, estuaries along the north central Gulf of Mexico are typically of the _____ type.

Bar-built (Pamlico Sound in North Carolina)

Long, narrow estuaries carved out by glaciers are called _____.

Fjords (Glacier Bay and Kenai Fjords in Alaska)

San Francisco Bay is an example of a _____ estuary.

Tectonic

Give examples of a species of crustacean that utilizes Gulf Coast estuaries as nursery grounds.

Blue crabs, brown shrimp, white shrimp

Estuaries addressed in this chapter.

Coastal plain estuary, Fjords, Bar-built, Tectonic, Coastal lagoon

An estuary that has a sand-bar across the mouth with limited freshwater inflow is called a

Coastal lagoon (Venetian Lagoon in Italy)

In terms of the types of animals found in estuaries, estuaries typically have ______ species richness and _______ animal abundances.

Low, high

A broad, poorly-defined, fan shaped area of mud formed where a river enters the ocean is called a ______________.

Delta (Mississippi River Delta)

The movement of water at the surface of an estuary is generally ________________

Seaward

The movement of the water near the bottom is generally _________________

Landward

In a well-mixed estuary there will be a ___________ change in salinity from the surface to the bottom and a ___________change in salinity from the river to the sea.

Small, Large

In a highly stratified estuary, there will be a ___________ change in salinity from the surface to the bottom and a ______________ change in salinity from the river to the sea.

Large, small

Compared to coastal waters, the temperatures in an estuary within a temperate climate zone will be _____________ variable than those offshore.

More

In an estuary where there is a sharp gradient in turbidity, the clearer water generally has a _________ salinity.

Higher

Clumping together of sediment particles in presence of salt ions is termed

________________.

Flocculation

Most primary production from emergent estuarine plants enters the water as

_____________.

Detritus (piles of leaves, animal feces)