| Abstract from DBPedia | A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh in trapping and binding sediments. Salt marshes play a large role in the aquatic food web and the delivery of nutrients to coastal waters. They also support terrestrial animals and provide coastal protection. Salt marshes have historically been endangered by poorly implemented coastal management practices, with land reclaimed for human uses or polluted by upstream agriculture or other industrial coastal uses. Additionally, sea level rise caused by climate change is endangering other marshes, through erosion and submersion of otherwise tidal marshes. However, recent acknowledgement by both environmentalists and larger society for the importance of saltwater marshes for biodiversity, ecological productivity and other ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, has led to an increase in salt marsh restoration and management since the 1980s.塩沼（えんしょう、英語：salt marsh）もしく塩性湿地、塩性沼沢とは、海岸にある湿地・沼地であり、海に近いため潮汐の影響により、時間帯により塩水・汽水に冠水するか、または陸地となる地形である。干潟全般よりも波浪の影響を受けにくい場所に分布しており、通常、塩生植物の繁殖が見られる。低緯度地帯では分布が少なく、同様の環境ではマングローブ林となっている。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Salt_marsh) |
