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How Estuaries Are Diverse And Rich Environments Essay

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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

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