Salt Marsh Peat Dispersal: Habitat for Fishes, Decapod Crustaceans, and Bivalves

Kenneth Able, Christina Welsh and Ryan Larum

A chapter in Peat from IntechOpen

Abstract: Salt marshes, especially those of Spartina alterniflora, are among the most productive habitats on Earth. The peat that is formed and accumulates there, as below-ground biomass, can be dispersed in a number of ways, through calving off the marsh edge along bays, in creeks, and other locations as occurs in the Mullica River - Great Bay estuary in southern New Jersey. Based on a variety of sampling approaches, including those collected by sidescan sonar and direct collection, we provide new insights into the ecological role of dispersed peat. Some of this is ice rafted on the marsh surface during storms. Elsewhere, and most commonly, it falls into the intertidal channels or flats where it may continue to support the growth of Spartina, and associated invertebrates such as Geukensia demissa. If it is deposited subtidally these may not be as likely, but in these situations the peat provides structured habitat for other animals such as fishes, crabs, shrimps, and bivalves.

Keywords: peat reefs; salt marshes; habitat complexity; fishes; macroinvertebrates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/59349 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:124938

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.74087

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from IntechOpen
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Slobodan Momcilovic (ai@intechopen.com).