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Estuaries:

Estuaries:. Mud Flats and Seagrass Meadows. By: Paige Leeper, Madison Ralph, Caroline Robbins, and Marissa Babbs. Mud Flats. Mud flats, found in bays and around rivers, contain an abundant amount of organic deposits.

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Estuaries:

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  1. Estuaries: Mud Flats and Seagrass Meadows By: Paige Leeper, Madison Ralph, Caroline Robbins, and Marissa Babbs

  2. Mud Flats • Mud flats, found in bays and around rivers, contain an abundant amount of organic deposits. • An odor of rotten eggs is produced by bacteria and other microorganisms that give off a sulfur-containing gas. • Mud flats, which are a mixture of sand and mud, primarily support burrowing organisms with very thin shells or soft bodies.

  3. Mud Flat:Food Webs • The main energy source of mudflats is organic matter made of decaying remains. • Bacteria recycle nutrients (nitrogen and phosphate) back to the sea. • The bacteria containing organic material is fed on by higher-level consumers.

  4. Animals of the Mud Flats: • Soft Shelled Clam ( Mya Arenaria) • Lugworms (Arenicola) • Inkeeper Worm (Urechis) • Red Scaleworm (family Polynoidae) • Pea Crabs (Pinnotheridae) • Gobies ( Gobiidae) • Ghost Shrimp (Callianassa)

  5. Seagrass Meadows • Seagrasses are plants that produce flowers underneath the water; they have root systems that stabilize the sand. • They thrive in protected waters from low tide zone to a depth of twenty feet. • Provide an important food source and shelter a huge source of marine plants and animals.

  6. Seagrass Meadows:Productivity • Can be productive communities but depend on the ability to extract nutrients from the sediments. • Symbiotic, nitrogen fixing bacteria are also active in the seagrass meadows. • They release the nutrients absorbed from the water, then algae species use them to maintain a high level of productivity.

  7. Seagrass Meadows:Habitat • Surfaces of seagrasses are a place of attachment for many tiny organisms (epiphytes and epifauna) • A wide variety of filter feeders live in the sand. • High productivity allows them to support a large and diverse group of organisms. • In seagrass habitats organisms are free from predators.

  8. THE END!

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