must obtain their energy from some source, such as the marsh. 



The aquatic forms, because of the flushing of the marsh surface with 

 ewery tide, have a large part of the marsh production brought to them 

 before the marsh consumers have a chance to eat it. A similar relation- 

 ship between marsh and associated waters would not necessarily be ex- 

 pected in a region where the great extent of the marsh was not regu- 

 larly flooded. 



Keywords: energy flow, salt marsh ecosystem, estuaries, Spartina , 

 Georgia 



III-E-7 



Teal, J.M. 1962. Energy flow in the salt marsh ecosystem of Georgia. 

 Ecology 43:614-624. 



The Marine Institute of the University of Georgia has focused its 

 attention on marshland located on Sapelo Island off the Georgia coast. 

 Construction of a picture of the energy flow through marsh organisms is 

 now possible through data supplied by these studies. 



The marsh was divided into five regions for study. They are: 

 streamside marsh; creek bank; levee marsh; short- Spartina marsh; and 

 Salicornia marsh. Marsh fauna and the food web are examined in detail, 

 and an extensive listing of macro-fauna is provided. 



The herbivorous fauna of many ecosystems can be divided into two 

 groups: those that feed directly on living plants and those that feed 

 on plants only after the plants have died and fallen to the ground. The 

 marsh fauna may be grouped in a similar manner. 



A group of insects lives and feeds directly upon the living Spartina : 

 OrcheTimum , eating the tissues; and Prokelisia , sucking the plant juices. 

 These and their less important associates support the spiders, wrens, 

 and nesting sparrows. A different group lives at the level of the mud 

 surface and feeds on the detritus formed by bacterial decomposition of 

 Spartina and on algae. These mud dwelling groups function mostly as 

 primary consumers, although the detritus also contains animal remains and 

 numbers of the bacteria that help break the Spartina into small pieces. 

 The carnivores preying on the algal and detritus group are principally 

 mud crabs, raccoons, and rails. 



The species of the detritus-algae feeding group that are important 

 in the economy of the marsh are the fiddler crabs, oligochaetes, Littorina , 

 and the nematodes among the deposit feeders; and Modiolus and Manayunkia 

 among the suspension feeders. Thus, the community consists of two parts. 



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