Questions and Answers Estuaries and You What is

Questions and Answers Estuaries and You!

What is an estuary? • Where river meets the sea • Slow water (low energy) • Low-lying lands • Salt tolerant plants and animals

What is a salt marsh? • low, wet area flooded by salt water during high tides

Common Plants and Animals

Why is the bottom of the salt marsh muddy? • Calm water • Decaying matter

How were the salt marshes formed? • Began forming after last Ice Age (~10, 000 ya) – when eroded soils from newly formed mountains were deposited along the coast. Today, sediment trapped by grasses continues expands our marshes.

How have plants & animals adapted? SALT • Only some have actually adapted to the salt water • Some can excrete salt • Most have developed ways to store fresh water TIDES • Some move to escape rising water • Some dig • Some have gills that can work as long as they are wet

Why is the salt marsh important to sea animals ? • Nursery • Food source

Can marshland be re-created once it is destroyed? • Efforts can be made to clean up and replant • Better to avoid destroying them in the first place

Why is the estuary and salt marsh important to people? • • Food Buffer Zone Filters Economy

What are your ideas? ? ?

Here is what to do! • Work as a group to create a plan to save, preserve, clean, or restore a marshland. • Include a story behind your idea for your presentation to your peers. • Make a poster to promote your idea to the public. • Make sure the poster illustrates both the problem and the solution.