Estuaries

I absolutely love the written word. Why? Because we can have so many names for the same subject/object and it can confuse those who don’t know all the different words.

For instance, estuaries can also called be bays, sounds, sloughs, or lagoons. Though, a coastal lagoon is different from an estuary, but we’ll get to that in a later post—let’s just agree for now that common names are a blessing and a curse.

Estuary is a very broad term because it includes both fresh and brackish water ecosystems, and there are three types of estuaries: salt-wedge, partially mixed, and fully mixed. Each type of estuary is determined by how the fresh and salt water mix.

Today, we’ll just start with a broad overview of coastal estuaries.

An estuary is an area where fresh water from a large stream or river mixes with the salt water from the ocean. This mixing results in brackish water, a chaotic medium between fresh and salt water. Brackish water is too salty to be considered fresh water, but not salty enough to be sea water.

What do I mean by chaotic? The salinity of an estuary changes with every season, passing day, and cycle of the tides. For instance, at high tide the salinity will be higher than at low tide because there is more ocean water mixing with the river water. During the rainy season, the salinity will be lower because the river/stream will have a lot more fresh water from the land runoff than normal, mixing more fresh water than usual with the ocean water. This chaotic nature makes estuaries interesting ecosystems for organisms to adapt to.

Due to their long, funnel-like shape, most estuaries don’t experience a gradual rise and fall of the tides. Instead, the tides rush into the estuary with such force that they create strong currents and even wall-like waves called tidal bores. With the tide comes offshore sediments that get deposited in the estuary as mud, and with the high rate of sedimentation, this mud builds up and creates special habitats within the estuary. In the tropics, these mud areas are called mangrove swamps; everywhere else, they’re called tidal mudflats and salt marshes—but I’ll discuss these habitats in detail later.

Estuaries are crucial to both the land and the ocean.

Estuaries provide a rich source of food for waders and shorebirds. Various types of migratory birds will stop at an estuary to consume worms and crustaceans that live in the mud before continuing on their way. Estuaries also provide breeding grounds for both land and aquatic animals.

One of the greatest functions of an estuary is that it is a natural water filter, helping to ensure that the water coming from the land is as clean as possible before entering the ocean. The process of filtration is complicated and requires a lot more explanation than I have time for today.

The take-away message for this post: estuaries are highly important to the ocean and the land, and they have recorded high levels of productivity for centuries. A lot of the early settlements of man were found in estuaries, such as the Nile Delta, the Ganges, and the Yellow River valley. Even many of today’s popular coastal centers, like New York City and London, were developed on estuaries. And because they attract us, estuaries are also highly susceptible to pollution and need to be protected.
Sources:
Ocean the Definitive Visual Guide made by the American Museum of Natural History
https://www.britannica.com/science/estuary/Geology-and-geomorphology#ref335485
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/estuary.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/estuary/

Seagrass Beds

Fun fact: when you search the Internet for general information on seagrass beds, one of the first things to pop up is shopping for “seagrass” beds. No, I’m not spending this time talking to you about beds you can sleep on—I think that would put us both to sleep.

Instead, I’m going to drone talk to you about seagrass bed the habitat.

Seagrass beds are very similar to kelp forests, which I’ve already talked about. They are both habitats that are dominated by a specific plant, and their roles are crucial to the health of the ocean and coastal communities. Seagrass beds are habitats made up of, you guessed it, seagrass.

Seagrass is the only flowering plant that lives its entire life in the sea. I’ll share more cool seagrass facts at another time!

The habitat flourishes in tropical waters, and the beds are most commonly found in shallow, sandy lagoons or enclosed bays. Basically, wherever the water is really clear and calm, that’s where seagrass beds do the best! They can even be found in polar waters too, though they’re more far common in the tropics.

Like kelp forests, seagrass beds function as nurseries and refuges for many fish that will spend their adult lives elsewhere. They also act as nurseries for some commercial invertebrates like shrimp and cuttlefish—and let me tell you, cuttlefish are one of the coolest groups of creatures you will ever see, so if they live in the seagrass, then those habitats are cool places too!

The seagrass itself is really important to green sea turtles, manatees, and dugongs. For green sea turtles it’s one of their primary food sources, but for the other two it’s their only food source. In fact, seagrass is so important that there is a correlation between the decline in seagrass communities and the decline the population numbers of the creatures that eat seagrass.

Green sea turtles and dugongs are endangered, while manatees have just barely—like since 2016—made it off the endangered species list.

Unfortunately, seagrass beds are highly vulnerable to pollution from the mainland. Large amounts of nutrients and sediments that are part of the land runoff oversaturate the water, making the water too murky for the seagrasses to do well. Suffice it to say, these environments are very important to fish, invertebrates, and larger animals and these habitats need to be protected if we want the communities they support to survive.

I’ve yet to dive at a seagrass bed. I’ve seen small patches of seagrass near some of the coral reefs sites that I swam around in Jamaica, but I don’t think they were quite large enough to support much. I think it would be really cool to scuba dive or snorkel in massive seagrass bed areas because of all the life you can see. I would love to play “Where’s Waldo?” with a bunch of the juvenile fish that will be camouflaged to blend in with the seagrass, and if I saw a manatee or a cuttlefish I’d probably squeal!

Sources and cool links with more information:
Ocean: The Definitive Visual Guide made by the American Museum of Natural History
https://oceana.org/marine-life/marine-science-and-ecosystems/seagrass-bed
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/plants-algae/seagrass-and-seagrass-beds
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/southflorida/habitats/seagrasses/life/

Kelp Forests

Photo of a sea lion within a kelp forest taken by Dr. Alex Mustard. To see more of his wonderful images visit his website www.amustard.com

When I spoke about sea otters, I briefly touched on kelp forests, which is where a lot of sea otters happen to live, and I just wanted to take the time to expand on these unique habitats. As the name suggests, kelp forests are made up of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) that can grow up to 30m (~98.5ft) long and as fast as 50cm (~20in) a day! These habitats are found along the coasts were the water is cold and nutrient rich, so from Alaska to California, along the west coast of South America below the tropics, and even near the borders of the poles.

The simplest way to describe a kelp forest is to relate them to forest found on land. Both are made up of plants that use photosynthesis to make food and oxygen, which isn’t a gas that plants use so it ends up being released into the environment. Anyways, both land forests and kelp forests are also considered habitats because they provide food and shelter to all sorts of creatures. Kelp forests are used by various species of fish that only go there to give birth to their young, which then use the kelp as a refuge until they reach maturity.

Cool fact: the fish born in kelp forests are typically a different color than their adult selves, using shades of green and brown to help camouflage them from predators like larger fish! Also, kelp forests are pretty important to coasts not only for the food it provides, but because they can also protect the coastline from severe storms by absorbing the intense wave-energy. Without kelp forests, intense storms can wipe out entire stretches of coastline and greatly change the layout of the coast.

Now, why are sea otters important to kelp forests? Well like many land forests, kelp forests can be wiped out and made barren, but not by man. Sea urchins typically feed on fallen kelp; however, if left unchecked their populations can grow to into frighteningly large numbers and can wipe out a whole bed of kelp. Luckily, sea urchins are a favorite menu item for sea otters, so they keep the sea urchin population down, which also keeps the kelp forests healthy and vibrant!

Kelp forests are pretty cool habitats and I think it would be cool to go diving near one, just to see all those fish and sea otters that call it home! And while sea urchins are interesting, I’ll definitely view those guys from a far because those spikes can seriously hurt.

Sources and cool things to check out:
Ocean: The Definitive Visual Guide (American Museum of Natural History)
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/plants-and-algae/giant-kelp

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/kelp.html