Drylands Research Paper

For my honors enrichment project, I have choose to do a photo contest. The photo contest I entered in was the Zeiss. The picture I entered in the contest was a marsh which I took when I visited Pinckney Island. Marshes are usually found on the edge of a stream, pond, or lake. They often flood and if the surrounding area gets too dry, they feed the water from the flood back to stream, pond, or lake. A marsh is a type of wetland, an area of land where water covers ground for long periods of time. Unlike swamps, which are dominated by trees, marshes are usually treeless and dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants. Herbaceous plants have no woody stem above ground, and they grow and die back on a regular cycle. Herbaceous plants can be annuals which grow anew every year, biennials which take two years to complete their life cycle, or perennials which take more than two years to complete …show more content…
Ocean tides fill the marsh with salty water and cause the water level to rise and fall twice a day. The marsh is deeper at high tide and shallower at low tide. Plants such as saw grass and pickleweed can tolerate fluctuating tidal waters, which are too salty for most trees and bushes. Like all marshes, tidal salt marshes are home to a wide variety of bird species. Small birds such as terns on fish, insects, and crustacean species found in the marsh. Ducks and cormorants are aquatic birds that rely on the grassy marsh for nesting sites as well as food such as fish, shrimp, and crabs. Even large raptors such as osprey are supported by tidal salt marshes. Commercially valuable fish and shellfish find food and shelter in salt marshes. The extensive tidal salt marshes along the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, for instance, feature a large number of these species, including cordgrass (sometimes used as fodder for livestock), shrimp, and