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Role of Salt Marshes as Part of Coastal Landscapes

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Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology

Abstract

Salt marshes are located between land and coastal water environments, and nutrient and production dynamics within salt marshes interact with those of adjoining ecosystems. Salt marshes tend to export materials to deeper waters, as shown by mass balance and stable isotopic studies. Salt marshes also intercept land-derived nutrients, and thus modify the potential response of phytoplankton, macroalgae, and seagrasses in the receiving estuarine waters. In particular, the maintenance of eelgrass meadows seems to depend on the ability of fringing salt marshes to intercept land-derived nitrogen. The bulk of the interception of land-derived nitrogen is likely to be the result of relatively high rates of denitrification characteristic of salt marshes. Thus, through exports of energy-rich materials, and interception of limiting nutrients, salt marsh parcels interact in quantitatively important ways with adjoining units of landscape. These interactions are of importance in understanding the basic functions of these mosaics of different coastal systems, as well as provide information needed to manage estuaries, as for example, in conservation of valuable eelgrass meadows.

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Author notes

  1. James Mcclelland

    Present address: School of Biology, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332

  2. Just Cebrian

    Present address: Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Dauphin Island, AL, 36528, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University Marine Program, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    Ivan Valiela, Marci L. Cole, James Mcclelland, Jennifer Hauxwell & Just Cebrian

  2. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Samantha B. Joye

Authors
  1. Ivan Valiela
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  2. Marci L. Cole
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  3. James Mcclelland
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  4. Jennifer Hauxwell
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  5. Just Cebrian
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  6. Samantha B. Joye
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium, Fort Hancock, NJ, USA

    Michael P. Weinstein

  2. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Daniel A. Kreeger

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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Valiela, I., Cole, M.L., Mcclelland, J., Hauxwell, J., Cebrian, J., Joye, S.B. (2002). Role of Salt Marshes as Part of Coastal Landscapes. In: Weinstein, M.P., Kreeger, D.A. (eds) Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47534-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47534-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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