Salt Marsh

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

salt marsh, area of low, flat, poorly drained ground that is subject to daily or occasional flooding by salt water or brackish water and is covered with a thick mat of grasses and such grasslike plants as sedges and rushes. Salt marshes are common along low seacoasts, inside barrier bars and beaches, in estuaries, and on deltas and are also extensive in deserts and other arid regions that are subject to occasional overflow by water containing a high content of salts. Maritime salt marshes often extend many miles inland and are variably subject to tidal action; inland brackish marshes are found frequently on mineral substrates of alluvial and lacustrine origin.

The grasses, sedges, and rushes that characterize salt marshes are halophytic, meaning that they are specially adapted to survive in saline habitats. Certain other plants, such as glassworts (Salicornia), can also tolerate high salinity and accumulate salts in their leaves and stems.

Invertebrates have adapted to the limited supplies of oxygen in salt marsh water in various ways. Rat-tailed maggots (Tubifera), for example, survive in shallow marshes by means of a telescoping tail-breathing tube that they extend to the water surface for air. Some larvae of shore flies (Ephydridae) and some nematodes take advantage of the air spaces in plants and obtain oxygen from that source. Many small marsh animals have great resistance to lack of oxygen; for example, many nematodes can live indefinitely in the complete absence of oxygen. This ability is essential for such minute animals that would otherwise be limited in distribution to a thin layer a fraction of an inch deep at the mud surface.

fiddler crab

Salt marsh animals living at or in the ground are largely derived from marine ancestors and have a problem in resisting fresh water from rains rather than salt. Some, such as worms, merely hide in the mud until the fresh water has run off the marsh surface. Others, such as fiddler crabs, have developed the ability to control their osmotic concentration in fresh water for periods of up to several days. Insects are the principal land animals found on marshes. Although they can withstand short periods of saltwater immersion, they often avoid salt water by moving up the plants or flying away.