Estuaries
By Ariana
What is an Estuarie?
An estuarie is a biome where salt water meets fresh water. It often has beautiful swirling patterns in the water when the two bodies of water meet.
Location
Estuaries can be located anywhere where there is both saltwater and fresh water. There are many in North America.
Chesapeake Bay Estuary
North America
Orange Estuary
Namibia, Africa
Estuary
New Zealand
Weather
- The weather greatly impacts the status of estuaries. For example, windy weather would create many waves in the estuary, which could make it harder to cope for some organisms, especially plants.
- If there is a dangerous storm, winds could push salt water up rivers, damaging habitats and killing organisms that are not used to the salinity.
- Estuaries can be in both hot and cold climates, as long as both a body of salt water and a body of fresh water are present.
- Because of the earth's increasing heat, glaciers and icebergs are melting. This raises sea levels, which greatly damages the health of the earth's estuaries.
Adaptations-Fish
- Wreckfish have air organs that allow them to float motionlessly, so that predators and prey don't notice them.
- They have large mouths to quickly inhale prey like shrimp.
- Wreckfish are very agressive, to scare any predators.
Variations
There are many kinds of variations in estuaries, but one is crabs. Mud crabs,hairy handed crabs, and blue crabs all live in estuaries. Hairy handed crabs have tan colored shells, because they always hide under rocks. Blue crabs are multicolored, because they run along the surface of the estuaries and need to blend in to different shells. Mud crabs are brown and burrow in the dirt.
Adaptations to enviroment
Mud crabs, hairy handed crabs, and blue crabs all live in estuaries. They are both crabs, but have different adaptations that help them live in estuaries. For example, mud crabs have very armoured shells to protect them from rough and sometimes violent tides. Hairy handed crabs are very muscular, and this helps them in that same way. Blue crabs have strong immune systems and they can drink either salt water or fresh water, which makes estuaries the perfect place for them.
Dependency between organisms
Organisms depend on each other to eat, hide, and reproduce. For example, a crab could hide in a plant if a predator comes by. If you took out one species from the system, everything would get messed up.