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Estuaries

Estuaries. By: 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

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Estuaries

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  1. Estuaries By: Erin Miller & Marykate Voyce

  2. What is it? • Coastal area where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with saltwater from the ocean

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

  4. Areas Found • Chesapeake Bay largest • New Jersey • Barnegat Bay • Delaware Estuary • New York-New Jersey Harbor

  5. 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.

  6. Producers • Johnson’s Seagrass • Water lillies • Mangrove trees • Marsh grasses, rushes and sedges grow in salt marshes • Algae • Plankton

  7. Consumers (Organisms that do not create their own food must either eat plants or other animals) Mammals: Harbor Seal, River Otter Sea Creatues: Starfish, Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Hermit Crabs, Fish: Trout, Salmon, Flounder, Perch • Birds: Canadian Goose, Turn, Goldeneye, Peregrine Falcon, Great-blue Heron, Western Sandpiper

  8. 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!

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Endangered Species (Tijuana Estuary) • California Least Tern • Western Snowy Plover • Light-Footed Clapper Rail • Least Bell's Vireo • Belding's Savannah Sparrow

  13. Endangered/Threatened Fish • Alabama Shad • Alewife • Alantic Sturgeon • Blueback Herring • Green Sturgeon • Gulf Sturgeon • Nassau Grouper • Saltmarsh topminnow • Stealhead Trout

  14. 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/

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