Altamaha Basin > Hydrology > Water Quality > Environmental Threats > Human Impacts > Cultural Features > Coastal Habitats > Tributaries > Plants > Animals > Sapelo Island |
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Throughout the intertidal marsh, benthic invertebrates, bacteria and algae live in close association with the marsh vegetation, grazing on it, decomposing it, using it as refuge or a substrate for attachment, and serving as a food resource for other marsh residents and for animals which migrate onto the marsh with the tide. Natant organisms must balance the benefits of swimming onto the flooded marsh to forage with the dangers of being stranded in the marsh by the receding tide. Areas near the uplands often have a fringing band of Juncus roemerianus, which also can be seen as large dark patches in the midst of an expanse of S. alterniflora. Often these patches are perched on old beds of the marsh mussel, Geukensia demissa. Although clearly able to tolerate inundation with salt water, J. roemerianus appears also to occur where it has more freshwater and infrequent inundation, in contrast to the succulent species found in the high marsh such as Salicornia virginica and Sarcocornia perennis, which are often found fringing salt pans or invading bare areas of marsh with relatively high elevation. Factors influencing zonation of these and other high marsh plants such as Batis maritima, Baccharis angustifolia, and Borrichia frutescens are poorly understood. |
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