EstuariesBy: Erin Miller & Marykate Voyce

What is it?

• Coastal area where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with saltwater from the ocean

The daily tidal cycle at the Kachemak Bay National Estuarian Reserve in Alaska

Areas Found• Chesapeake

Bay largest• New Jersey– Barnegat

Bay – Delaware

Estuary – New York-

New Jersey Harbor

Interesting Facts

• Often called bays, sounds, harbors• Brackish Water- heavier salt water sink, the

lighter fresh water rises• Positive: precipitation and runoff exceed

evaporation and sea water is diluted.• Neutral: runoff + precipitation = evaporation• Negative or inverse estuaries: no freshwater

runoff.

Producers

• Johnson’s Seagrass• Water lillies• Mangrove trees• Marsh grasses, rushes

and sedges grow in salt marshes

• Algae• Plankton

Consumers

(Organisms that do not create their own food must either eat plants or other animals)

• Birds: Canadian Goose, Turn, Goldeneye, Peregrine Falcon, Great-blue Heron, Western Sandpiper

• Mammals: Harbor Seal, River Otter

• Sea Creatues: Starfish, Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Hermit Crabs,

• Fish: Trout, Salmon, Flounder, Perch

Food Web

• Primary producers to consumers• Primary– bacterial decomposition into organic detritus – animals that feed on plankton and these are the most

abundant species of vertebrates– carnivores (predators) occupy the highest level

obtaining energy by eating animals that feed on plankton and detritus

• Predators: Trophic level is inverted because most carnivorous species are at the top of the food web!

Resources

• Estuaries provide water filtration and habitat protection

• Birds, fish, amphibians, insects, and other wildlife depend on estuaries to live, feed, nest, and reproduce

• Some fish and migratory birds only live in estuaries for part of there lives

• More than 75 percent of the U.S. commercial fish caught live in estuaries

Concerns • Estuaries are very important

and are in danger of disappearing if measures aren’t taken to save them

• People fill wetland to create communities and farmers have blocked tidal flow to turn marshlands into pasture

• In 2000, only 49% of all estuaries had good water quality

The Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve

Preserving and Restoring

• IN an effort to help protect them, Congress created the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) in 1972

• Efforts have been made to restore polluted or destroyed estuaries

• In 2000, the Estuary Restoration Act (ERA) was signed into law

• The ERA’s goal is to save one million acres of destroyed estuaries

Estuary reserves in the US

Endangered Species (Tijuana Estuary)

• California Least Tern • Western Snowy Plover • Light-Footed Clapper Rail • Least Bell's Vireo • Belding's Savannah Sparrow

Endangered/Threatened Fish1. Alabama Shad2. Alewife3. Alantic Sturgeon4. Blueback Herring5. Green Sturgeon6. Gulf Sturgeon7. Nassau Grouper8. Saltmarsh topminnow9. Stealhead Trout

Works Cited• http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep6a.htm• www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/rivers • http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Water/estuary.html • http://teacher.ocps.net/theodore.klenk/ms/Estuary.htm • http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/estuaries/2/2 • http://estuary.uconn.edu/EWP12.html • http://trnerr.org/endang.html Tijuana Estuary• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/welcome.html • http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/supp_est_roadmap.html• http://depts.washington.edu/natmap/water/estuary_animals.html • http://www.estuaries.gov/estuaries101/About/Default.aspx?ID=231 • http://nerrs.noaa.gov/ •