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A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs.
Mats of salt hay grass are inhabited by many small animals and are an important food source for ducks and seaside sparrows. Newburyport Meadows, c. 1872–1878, by Martin Johnson Heade Sporobolus pumilus in a high marsh area. Saltmeadow cordgrass marshes serve as pollution filters and as buffers against flooding and shoreline erosion.
Marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors greatly influence the range and scope of animal and plant life that can survive and reproduce in these environments. The three main types of marsh are salt marshes, freshwater tidal marshes, and freshwater marshes.
Even though the coastal marshes lack species diversity as a whole, there are differing plants between the marshes themselves. Vegetation structure and function can differ due to intertidal zone location, tidal movements of the marsh, and soil salinity. Animal habitat. Few terrestrial animals inhabit the coastal salt marsh.
Spartina is a genus of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Species in this genus are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Europe, north-western and southern Africa, the Americas and the islands of the southern Atlantic Ocean; one or two species also occur on the western coast of ...
Sporobolus alterniflorus, or synonymously known as Spartina alterniflora, the smooth cordgrass, [1] saltmarsh cordgrass, or salt-water cordgrass, is a perennial deciduous grass which is found in intertidal wetlands, especially estuarine salt marshes. It has been reclassified as Sporobolus alterniflorus after a taxonomic revision in 2014, [2 ...
Halophyte. Spartina alterniflora ( cordgrass ), a halophyte. A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores. The word derives from Ancient Greek ...
The Baylands are home to numerous species of plants and animals including the near threatened Ridgway's rail and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. Several gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) breeding pairs inhabit the Baylands where they are relatively safe from large predators like puma (Puma concolor). Recreation