Estuaries

What is an Estuary? 

An Estuary is a partially-enclosed body of water that has an opening 
to the open ocean with streams flowing into it. Estuaries can help create 
fresh water by mixing it with the salt water from the ocean and the fresh 
water from the streams and rivers.

However, an Estuary needs some type of tide to maintain 

a connection between the multiple water sources. If the waters are non-

tital, the rivers will form a delta. 

The world's largest Estuary is the Gulf of St. Lawrence, located 
in eastern Canada.  


"Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland, or agricultural land. The tidal, sheltered waters of estuaries also support unique communities of plants and animals especially adapted for life at the margin of the sea." (EPA.gov)

Estuaries are very diverse; they contain shallow waters,
 fresh and salt marshes, swamps, mud and sand flats, rocky shores, oyster reefs, mangrove forests, river deltas, tidal pools, and seagrasses. 
Estuaries are popular places for recreation and many types of scientific research. 
Migratory birds often seek refuge during long journeys in estuarine environments.

Article 1: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/e/estuary.htm

Article 2: http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/nep/about.cfm

Picture 1: http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/_images/estuary.jpg

Picture 2: http://b.static.trunity.net/images/209830/500x0/scale/Gulf_of_St._Lawrence.png