Concept explainers
A proposal is made to deepen the entrance and main channel of an estuary. What do you think will happen to the salt marshes that surround the channel? What do you predict will happen to the primary production of the estuary as a whole?
To determine: What would happen to the salt marshes that surround the channel when the entrance and main channel of an estuary is deepened.
Introduction: Estuaries represent a close interaction between land and sea. This is because estuaries are the semi or partially enclosed body of water areas where fresh water and seawater meet and mix.
Explanation of Solution
Estuaries are present in the temperate and subarctic regions worldwide. It is usually surrounded or bordered by extensive grassy area that extend inland from the mudflats and are partially flooded at high tides. These intertidal areas are known as salt or tidal marshes.
If the entrance and main channel of an estuary is deepened, then it would adversely affect and destroy the salt marshes present in the vicinity of the estuaries. As the sedimentation of salt marshes increases, it promotes the growth of plants.
The marshes vary in the amount of salinity that is influenced on the motion of ocean tides. Marshes can only thrive along the low-energy coasts where the waves are not strong. Deepening of the entrance and main channel of an estuary causes flow of stronger waves into the salt marshes and it would be destroyed.
To determine: What would happen to the primary production of the estuary as a whole when the entrance and main channel of an estuary is deepened.
Introduction: Estuaries represent a close interaction between land and sea. This is because estuaries are the semi or partially enclosed body of water areas where fresh water and seawater meet and mix.
Explanation of Solution
Salt marshes in an estuary are dominated by primary producers such as few hardy grasses and salt tolerant land plants. Primary production in an estuary is the production of organic material from aquatic carbon dioxide either through photosynthesis or through reduction of chemical energy. The nutrients for the primary producers in an estuary are obtained through freshwater inflow. Therefore, deepening of the entrance and main channel of an estuary causes the destruction of the salt marshes and thereby the primary production of the estuary would decrease significantly.
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