Riddle Me This, Ishmael

1
Riddle Me This, Ishmael

• Answer Q5, pg 403 from Chap. 8 (6th ed.)
• How do physical and biological factors interact
  to create zonal patterns in the New England salt
  marshes?
• Due Friday (no late acceptance)

2
Estuaries
3
Four Types of Estuaries

• Coastal plain
• drowned river valley
• Bar-built
• lagoon, semi-enclosed
• Tectonic
• Fjord

Misty Fjord, Alaska
4
Coastal Plain Estuary

• River or coast flooded after sea-level rise
• Characteristics of river mouths and flood plains
• deep, V-shape

Chesapeake Bay
5
Bar-Built Estuary

• Sedimentary barrier between lagoon and ocean
• Flat, shallow bottom

6
Tectonic Estuary

• Formed by tectonic activity
• Variable morphology
• depends on formation

San Francisco Bay
7
Fjords

• Formed by glacial scouring
• Steep, U-shape
• Rock sill at seaward edge

Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier, Alaska
8
Estuarine Environment
What are the environmental parameters, common to
most estuaries, that you think might most affect
community structure?
9
Estuarine Environment

• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________

• Compare a bar-built to a fjord
• Think of
• morphology
• abiotic environment
• vertical zonation
• horizontal zonation

10
Bar-Built vs Fjord

• Bar-Built
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________

• Fjord
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________
• _________________

11
Primary Physical Factors

• Coastal Plain
• fresh vs salt water
• Bar-Built
• wind-driven
• Tectonic
• varies
• Fjord
• tidal?

12
Salinity, Temperature Flow
Low freshwater input / high tide
High freshwater input / low tide
13
Substrate, Turbidity Light

• Most estuaries have sediment bottom
• source?
• River flow and wave action
• How does turbidity affect GPP?

14
Organismal Distribution
15
Osmoregulation