Estuaries
Estuaries
Outline
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What Is an Estuary?
Classification
Characteristics
How organisms adapted to live here?
What Is an Estuary?
Classification
1. Coastal Plain Estuaries
2. Tectonic Estuaries
3. Bar-built Estuaries
4. Fjords
Characteristics
Water Circulation
• Regulated by the ebb and flow of tides; differences in the density of water; and wind.
• Lighter, less dense freshwater flows out near the surface,
• Denser saline water flows inward from the sea near the bottom.
Circulation Modes.
(1) Classical
(2) Reverse
(3) Discharge
(4) Storage
A Water Filtration System
• Rivers often contain lots of sediment, nutrients and pollutants.
• Estuaries remove sediments and nutrients before they reach the ocean.
• Valuable top soil and nutrients would be flushed into the open seas where they could not be used again.
Nutrient supply
• Photosynthesis occurs throughout the water column and on the sediment
• Contain the food webs important producers
• Sediments store organic matter and are the site of microbial activity.
• Micro organisms decompose complex organic compounds into useable forms
Ecosystem Productivity
• Play an important role in coastal food webs
• Provide a calm refuge from the open sea for millions of plants and animals
• Support s enormous abundance and diversity of species • Visiting species use the estuary for feeding, breeding, spawning and as nurseries for their young. • Estuaries are among the most productive environments on earth
Seagrass
Sea rush
Mangroves
Mangroves
Tropics and subtropics plants – mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S classified into 16-24 families and 54-75 species Most mangrove species are found in
Southeast Asia
Adaptations to low oxygen
Limiting salt intake
Limiting water loss
Nutrient uptake
Increasing survival of offspring
have lenticels, or small pores in the prop roots through which oxygen can be brought into the aerenchyma, or air space tissue in the cortex of the plant, during low
Outline
•
•
•
•
What Is an Estuary?
Classification
Characteristics
How organisms adapted to live here?
What Is an Estuary?
Classification
1. Coastal Plain Estuaries
2. Tectonic Estuaries
3. Bar-built Estuaries
4. Fjords
Characteristics
Water Circulation
• Regulated by the ebb and flow of tides; differences in the density of water; and wind.
• Lighter, less dense freshwater flows out near the surface,
• Denser saline water flows inward from the sea near the bottom.
Circulation Modes.
(1) Classical
(2) Reverse
(3) Discharge
(4) Storage
A Water Filtration System
• Rivers often contain lots of sediment, nutrients and pollutants.
• Estuaries remove sediments and nutrients before they reach the ocean.
• Valuable top soil and nutrients would be flushed into the open seas where they could not be used again.
Nutrient supply
• Photosynthesis occurs throughout the water column and on the sediment
• Contain the food webs important producers
• Sediments store organic matter and are the site of microbial activity.
• Micro organisms decompose complex organic compounds into useable forms
Ecosystem Productivity
• Play an important role in coastal food webs
• Provide a calm refuge from the open sea for millions of plants and animals
• Support s enormous abundance and diversity of species • Visiting species use the estuary for feeding, breeding, spawning and as nurseries for their young. • Estuaries are among the most productive environments on earth
Seagrass
Sea rush
Mangroves
Mangroves
Tropics and subtropics plants – mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S classified into 16-24 families and 54-75 species Most mangrove species are found in
Southeast Asia
Adaptations to low oxygen
Limiting salt intake
Limiting water loss
Nutrient uptake
Increasing survival of offspring
have lenticels, or small pores in the prop roots through which oxygen can be brought into the aerenchyma, or air space tissue in the cortex of the plant, during low