Salt Marshes/Mangroves

Salt marshes and mangroves are functionally similar environments that both have
High amounts of ____ ____
____ waves
_____ nutrients
provide _________ structure

Primary production
buffer
filter
habitat

Three conditions fostering the development of both salt marshes and mangrove communities

Protection from waves
Gradual slope through intertidal region
Temperate or subpolar latitudes

Salt marshes and mangroves are functionally similar environments that both have
High amounts of ____ ____
____ waves
_____ nutrients
provide _________ structure

Primary production
buffer
filter
habitat

Three conditions fostering the development of both salt marshes and mangrove communities

Protection from waves
Gradual slope through intertidal region
Temperate or subpolar latitudes

Mangroves are only present in _____ latitudes, occupying 2/3 of that shoreline

Tropical

Salt marshes and mangroves form on what margins?

Passive

Network that brings salt/freshwater as well as organisms to the marsh

Tidal drainage network

Marshes salinity are a continuum that run with

Rivers

Marshes and mangroves provide the best defense against

Flooding and hurricanes

What two effects do marshes/mangroves have on the marine environment?

Accretion
Biological filters

Term for reduction of the water velocity, allowing sediments to fall and buffering incoming wave action

Accretion

Metabolization of excess nutrients from runoff, thus improving the water quality is action as a

biological filter

What causes vertical elevation gain, allowing marshes/mangroves to resist rising sea levels?

Yearly root production
Sediment build-up

Salt marshes and mangroves have high or low PP?

High

Salt marshes and mangroves are ____-based foodwebs

Detritus

The most productive intertidal ecosystem is

salt marshes

PP in gC/m2/y of salt marshes is

1200

What % of NPP is due in thanks to benthic algae in salt marshes?

20%

Herbivores are not well-suited to live in marshes/mangroves because of primary producers 2 factors

High salinity
Lignin content

Why are mangrove forests less productive than salt marshes?

Tree canopy shades out algal primary production

Mangroves/salt marshes are important fisheries since large predator fish eat the high amount of _____ present in the food web

detritivores

Organic carbon stored as plants and sediments in marine ecosystems

Blue carbon

Loss of blue carbon releases what into the atmosphere?

CO2

The loss of blue carbon in seagrass ecosystems is largely due to what factor?

Agricultural runoff

The loss of blue carbon in mangroves/marshes is largely due to what factor?

Land conversion practices

The stress gradients of marshes and mangroves are driven by what two chemical factors

Salinity
O2

The three salt marsh grass species, from closest to shore to furthest into marsh

Spartina
Salicornia
Juncus

The three salt mangrove species, from closest to shore to furthest into marsh

Rhizophora (red mangrove)
Avicennia (black mangrove)
Laguncularia (white mangrove)

Zonation within the Spartina zone divides the same organism into

Tall-form and short-form

Scientific word for flooding

Inundation

Tall-form Spartina zone has what levels of:
Salinity
O2
H2S

Lower salinity
Higher O2

Lower H2S

Short-form Spartina zone has what levels of:
Salinity
O2
H2S

Higher salinity
Lower O2
Higher H2S

Zonation across the whole marsh is driven by what closer to water and what farther from the water?

physical factors, competition

What are the two physical factors that drive the tolerance zone?

Salinity
Inundation

The competition zone of the marsh holds what species

Juncus

The tolerance zone most driven by salinity tolerance holds what species of marsh grass?

Salicornia

The tolerance zone most driven by inundation (O2 availability) holds what species of marsh grass?

Spartina

What two challenges do plants have adaptations for in marsh/mangrove?

Osmotic uptake
O2 availability

Primary solution for osmotic uptake is

Osmolytes

Secondary solution for osmotic uptake is

Maintaining water

What is the two ways salt marsh grass maintains water?

Succulence
Salt excretions

What adaptations foster better O2 availability for salt grasses?

Roots grown closer to surface
Aerenchyma air passages

What adaptations do red mangroves (Rhizophora) have for their zone in the mangrove forest?

Osmolytes
Aerial prop roots
Lenticel pores (gas exchange)

What adaptations do black mangroves (Avicennia) have for their zone in the mangrove forest?

Salt-secretions
Lenticel pores (gas exchange)
Pneumatophores
Osmolytes

Vertical roots that grow beside a mangrove

Pneumatophores