Estuaries are incredibly diverse and rich environments. An estuary allows for diverse populations of fishes and other invertebrates because of the varying salinities and rich food sources (Keefer, Caudill, Peery, & Moser, 2013). If an estuary is long enough there is a gradient as the fresh and salt water begin to mix ("At the river 's end," 2005). This gradient provides protection for some species and breeding grounds for other species. The unique habitat is makes a great nursery for juvenile fishes (Fulford et al., 2014). Anadromous fishes spawn in freshwater and migrate to saltwater until they are sexually mature when they return to freshwater habitats to reproduce (Feyrer et al., 2015). The opposite is said for catadromous fishes which spawn in saltwater and migrate to freshwater until they are sexually mature when they return to saltwater to reproduce (Walsh, Gray, West, & Williams, 2011).
Salt marshes have high primary productivity (O 'Connor, Violin, Anton, Ladwig, & Piehler, 2011). Much like estuaries, salt marshes have a variety of different salinities. The environment of a salt marsh is dependent on the tides and the weather. The upper marsh has lower salinity due to low tidal inflow, whereas the lower marsh salinity is maintained by daily tidal inflow. However, variables such as heavy rain can affect both the upper and lower tidal zones. Salt marshes can also experience dry seasons where the water experiences evaporation which increases the salinity of
Brooks and Dodson, the authors of the article titled “Predation, Body Size, and Composition of Plankton”, conducted research on the effect the small fish called Alosa Pseudoharengus has on an ecosystem, more specifically, different lakes in New England. Along with the data they collected on the aforementioned matter, they studied the sizes and the composition of the miniscule zooplankton inhabiting the lakes, and compared it with that of the Alosa. Their research uncovered important facts regarding water ecosystems and how they are so easily thrown off balance.
The Bay’s salinity varies widely from season to season and from year to year, depending on the amount of fresh water flowing from its rivers. The Bay tends to be fresher in spring, when snow melts and heavy rainstorms frequently fall. During the drier months, the Bay is usually saltier. Salinity also increases with depth. Fresh water remains at the surface because it is less dense than salt water. The water on the Bay’s eastern shore tends to be saltier than the water on the western side. This is due to two factors; most fresh water enters the Bay from its northern and western tributaries, and The Coriolis Force, a phenomenon caused by the earth’s rotation, pushes flowing water in the Northern Hemisphere to the right, causing saltier water to move up the Bay veers toward the eastern shore.
An estuary system is “the resulting collisions of sweet and salt-fresh river water flowing seaward and ocean water inland.” It is an aquatic system where salt and freshwater are constantly mixing. An estuary system is one of most active systems of the planet; it is a hybrid system that contains the best and worst qualities of the ocean, river, and lake systems it conglomerates. Estuaries are unique in nature because of their ability to be the most productive ecosystem on the entire planet; humans have attempted and failed to reach the productivity that estuaries naturally grant. There productivity lies it the constant change that occurs from the conflicting flows of fresh and ocean water. Ocean and freshwater are measured largely based on salinity, or the level of parts of salt per thousand. Ocean water usually
I examine how rising or falling tide can affect the water level of Corte Madera Salt Marsh in this report. The data is from Wednesday (June 19th) and Thursday (June 20th). My hypothesis is that tide and water level have positive relationship. From the result, I learn that the water level and tide have positive relationship. However, when tide changes its direction, the water level is likely to stay or little change.
The river plays an important role in North Carolina’s estuaries found in the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound as it dumps its nutrient-dense waters into the estuaries to feed the system. One of only three rivers to be totally contained within North Carolina’s borders, the river has been noted to have the widest mouth in the continental
Silvershell Beach is the home to many different aquatic species and other forms of wildlife. Last lab block the class and I went into the ocean at Silvershell beach and took seven different seine net samples. With each sample we took, we noticed a variety of different organisms. As we moved around different areas of the ocean, we would come out with changing species and number of species that we did not find in other areas of the water. Species we found included sea robin, hermit crabs, moon jellies, minnows, shrimp, eels, and more. Sample one and two were taken from around the same area in the water and there was a reappearance of three of the species. In sample one we found hermit crabs, minnows, moon jellies, and a sea robin. In sample two
When salinity increases, warning signs appear in the landscapes of the affected areas. These warning signs include things like sick and/or dying trees, declining vegetation, colonisation of tolerant weed-like plants, bare patches where vegetation has died and saline pools in creek beds. These show that the ecosystem is being affected and at a high rate.
(Salton Sea Symposium, 1998) However , the condition of the Sea has drastically changed and so has the amount of healthy living organisms in the Sea. By the 1980�s the water level rose greatly and gave way to abandoned businesses, deteriorating structures and empty beaches. The above was due to the fact that evaporation is the only outlet to the Salton Sea , in fact 1.35 million acre feet of water is lost each year , thus increasing its salinity even more. The salinity of the Salton Sea has increased to 45,000 parts per thousand or 45 PPT; the Pacific Ocean is currently 35 PPT.
Throughout Julia Alvarez’s, On Not Stealing the Blue Estuaries, the speaker makes a self discovery about herself and what it is she is going to do with her life after this moment. This poem is an unearthing for the speaker and is full of other discoveries about what it is she finds she is destined for. The author uses imagery, figurative language and selection of detail in order to describe her discoveries, which to her is discovering that she wants to be a write poetry.
Although the Easter Shore of Maryland is most well known for their shellfish, the abundance of shellfish barely scratches the surface of the marine life found in the Chesapeake Bay. From the shallows of the Bay to the bottom in one hundred feet of water, the life found in the Bay varies drastically. The different conditions foster an assortment of fish such as permanent residents, migrants, and occasional visitors. It is home to mature fish and is also an important nursery ground for millions of ocean fish (Blair and Ansel 111). About two hundred and two species have been recorded as permanent residents of the Chesapeake and there are four classes of migratory fish (“Chesapeake Wildlife”). Species such as shad, alewife, and striped bass leave the marine environment to spawn in fresh water. In the summer, hardhead, spot, and menhaden reside in the Bay. Bluefish are a common migrant found in the
In Julia Alvarez’s poem “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries”, the poet uses poetic devices to conveys the speaker’s discovery of a poem that catches her attention so much that she feels a rush of excitement that wants to hold on to as long as she can. She discovers about herself how captivated she can be from a poem and how she would even stoplift to keep the rush. The exciting tone is revealed through the entrancement of the girl.The smooth, calming imagery shows how impacted she was by the poem and how uncertain she was about her situation. The selection of detail shows how the book was unique and how she eventually saw who she was becoming.
First time I visited to hudson river wetlab pier 40 in New York City in my life. I did not knew too much information about the river before I left to hudson river. I saw many fishes to hudson river and hudson estuary also hosts many migratory fishes, such as atlantic sturgeon, american shad, and striped bass that fish live the few months or years of their lives in a fresh water and before they swimming out into the atlantic they do mature. As a adults of fishes they have to return to the river only to spawn. Hudson river also they have many different kind of animals as well such as diamondback terrapin, megan lorenz, chesapeake bay oysters, bald eagle, atlantic sturgeon, and red salamander, so on. One thing that, I heard from the women she was saying that the atlantic sturgeon is the hudson largest fish, that often reaching lengths of five to eight feet and in addition, it is anadromous females fish and
In the poem, “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries”, by Sulia Alvarez conveys the speaker's discoveries by using poetic devices such as imagery, tone and selection of detail. Alvarez uses words like “darkened” and “doubts” to further convey the speaker's discoveries.
The Atlantic cod fishery collapse left terrible ecological consequences. As mentioned above, the fishing technology was a major destruction to the ecological system by using deployment and draggers. The huge nets that were dropped and dragged along the bottom of the ocean destroyed the underlying eco-system in the process. The effect of selective fishing on spawning grounds – that is, selectively over-exploiting one species in an ecosystem – had disastrous effect on the feeding relationships in that ecosystem. This contributes to the overall reduction of spawning stock biomass of the targeted species, but also an increase in the number of invertebrate and vertebrate predators such as crustacean and fish which will prey on cod eggs, larvae, and younger fish. It is a little wonder that a species like cod, would eventually run into difficulties struggling to survive when its habitat is being continuously destroyed and the balance of their food chain had been wiped out.
However, many fisherman are unable to catch as many fish as they used to, so they are increasingly using cyanide and dynamite in fishing, which further degrades the coral reef ecosystem.[6] This perpetuation of bad habits simply leads to the further decline of coral reefs and therefore perpetuating the problem. One solution to stopping this cycle is to educate the local community about why conservation of marine spaces that include coral reefs is important.[7] Once the local communities understand the personal stakes at risk then they will actually fight to preserve the reefs. Conserving coral reefs has many economic, social, and ecological benefits, not only for the people who live on these islands, but for people throughout the world as well.