Estuaries and Wetlands

What Are Estuaries?• Where the freshwater of a river meets the

salty water of the ocean

• They mix here forming brackish water, which just means a mixture of salt and freshwater.

• You live in the 4th largest estuary system in the US.

Estuaries• Estuaries are one of the most productive

environments on Earth.

• They often contain many wetlands.

• Many marine animals, such as fish & shrimp, begin their lives in estuaries safe from predators. Without the wetlands (in the estuary) these animals would disappear.

What does an estuary look like?

CoastalCoastalHabitatsHabitats

Source: Denise Reed

Source: NOAA

Barrier IslandsBarrier Islands

Endangered species of the Mobile Bay Estuary

Federally Endangered or Threatened Species:

Mammals:• Alabama beach mouse• West Indian manatee

Birds:• bald eagle• peregrine falcon• piping plover• red-cockaded woodpecker• wood stork

Fish:• Gulf sturgeon

Federally Endangered/Threatened Species:

Reptiles:• Alabama red-bellied turtle• eastern indigo snake• gopher tortoise• loggerhead sea turtle

Insects:• American Burying beetle

Plants:• Alabama canebrake pitcher-plant• American chaffseed• Louisiana quillwort• Mohr's Barbara's buttons

Endangered Mammals, Fish, & Birds

• Alabama beach mouse

• Alabama sturgeon Peregrine falcon

Endangered Reptiles& Insects• Alabama Red-bellied • turtle (state reptile)

• The American

Burying Beetle

Pitcher plantPitcher plant

Pitcher plant bogsPitcher plant bogs

WetlandsWetlands: an area of land where the water

level is near or above the surface of the ground for most of the year.

The United States is losing more than 80,000 acres of wetland habitat annually. That's more than seven football fields each day!

Wetlands

So why are they so important?

• support a variety of animal and plant life

• control flooding by storing flood water

• Filter water ($2,000 worth of water treatment per acre annually X 160,000 acres in Mobile Bay alone!)

• replenish ground water

Two types of wetlands in the US:

a. Marshes: treeless wetland

• find them along the shores of lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, & river deltas

• plants found there depends on the depth of the water & location; grasses, reeds, bulrushes, & wild rice

• animals found there: muskrats, turtles, frogs, and red-winged blackbirds

b. Swamps: a wetland ecosystem where trees & vines grow

• occur in low lying areas & beside slow-moving rivers

• are flooded only part of the year depending on rainfall

• plants & animals found there: willow trees, bald cypress, water tupelos, oaks, elms, poison ivy, Spanish moss, water lilies, fish, snakes, birds

Freshwater MarshesFreshwater Marshes

Source: USGS

Wetlands: The EvergladesWetlands: The Everglades

Source: Susanne Moser

The Florida Everglades Wetlands Reconstruction Project

• Total Acres: 41,460

• Phosphorus Removed thru 12/03: 417.5 Tons

• 747.9 million dollars spent since the mid 90s on this restoration project

• 8 billion dollars will be spent by the end of this 30 year project

1943 versus 1991

Stormwater Treatment AreasStormwater Treatment AreasSTAs are constructed wetlands that remove

and store nutrients through plant growth and the accumulation of dead plant material in a

layer of peat.

A Stormwater Treatment Wetland

Swamps

Cypress swamp found commonly in the Southern United States. Note the Cypress “knees”. The Okefenokee Swamp is to the right. It is in southern Georgia and northern Florida.

Mangroves Mangroves in the in the EvergladesEverglades

Source: Robert Twilley

Source: USGS

Source: National Park Service

Forested wetlandsForested wetlands

http://www.ducks.org/

Wetlands and the Ducks Unlimited Connection

• No other organization has done for wildlife habitat what DU has done.

• Began in 1937 DU has conserved more than 9.4 million acres of waterfowl habitat throughout North America. DU supporters have raised nearly $1.6 billion for conservation since 1937.

Lakes, etc. to forests

Lake to Forest

• eventually lakes fill in over time and become forest

• sediment is deposited by local rivers & streams until over time the lake is filled in and becomes a forest

PondPond

Perry Lake, AlabamaPerry Lake, Alabama

BottomlandBottomlandhardwoodhardwood

forestsforests

Source: Robert Twilley

The walking catfish

Mississippi River Drainage Basin

Coral reefs -Coral reefs -the rainforests the rainforests of the seaof the sea

Source: Mike White, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Source: NOAA

Close up shot of coral (moon coral)

Zooxanthellae: symbiotic algae and the coral polyp

The Great Barrier Reef off of Australia

Threats to the Reef

• Can be seen from space—2900 reefs; covering 1600 miles and 134,000 sq acres

• Largest thing on earth made by living organism

• Will likely die due to global warming—coral bleaching—tourism and fishing, runoff, and crown of thorns starfish

Bleached coral and nonbleached coral

Crown of thorns starfish