What Animals and Plants Live in Estuaries and Salt Marshes?
Confined to small, transitional areas between the land and sea, estuaries and salt marshes may support fewer animal and plant species than do marine or freshwater ecosystems, but they still provide productive habitats for many fish, shellfish and water birds. A habitat is the natural home of a plant or animal. Changes to this home can affect the organisms that live there, sometimes, in harmful ways. Commercially important fish such as flounder, salmon, trout, striped bass, shad, gaspereau and smelt feed in estuaries and migrate through them to reach spawning grounds. Many birds feed and over-winter in estuaries. The nutrient-rich mudflats provide abundant food for certain species of shellfish including soft-shell clams, mussels, periwinkles, crabs and shrimp. Productive shellfisheries are often found in estuaries. Saltmarsh plants grow on mudflats that have accumulated to a height where they are exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) such as c
