III-A-8 



Barnes, R.S. 1974. Estuarine biology. Edward Arnold, London. 76 pp. 



This booklet views the biology of estuarine organisms in the con- 

 text of their environment as a whole. It also introduces to a general 

 audience some of the more recent advances in our knowledge and under- 

 standing of estuaries. The third section is concerned with the food web 

 and contains a concise description of the relationship between detritus 

 production in the salt marshes and the eventual assimilation of nutrients 

 by the higher aquatic animals. (J.B.) 



Keywords: estuarine organisms, food web, detritus, salt marshes 



III-A-9 



Odum, W.E., J.C. Zieman, and E.J. Heald. 1973. The importance of vascular 

 plant detritus to estuaries. Pages 91-114 ui^ R.H. Chabreck, ed.. 

 Proceedings of the coastal marsh and estuary management symposium. 

 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. 



The role of vascular plant detritus in estuaries is discussed. 

 Sources and amounts of annual net production are compared for marsh 

 grasses, sea grasses and mangroves. The processes and mechanisms of 

 degradation and export are examined and the utilization of detritus 

 by consumers is described. 



In most shallow estuaries, there is a group of detritus consumers 

 made up of few species but many individuals. Included in this group 

 are amphipods, mysids, cumaceans, ostracods, chironomid midge larvae, 

 harpacticoid and planktonic copepods, snapping shrimp, caridean shrimp, 

 penaeid shrimp, crabs, filter feeding bivalves and a few species of 

 fishes. All of these derive a significant amount of their nourishment 

 from the ingestion of vascular plant detritus along with small quantities 

 of fresh algae. Moreover, fecal material extruded by one organism 

 In this group may be re-ingested a short time later by another species, 

 and the entire process of microbial enrichment and subsequent digestion 

 by the detritus consumer will be repeated. It is these organisms which are 

 responsible for supplying the critical link between detritus production 

 and the production of higher consumers. (A. A.) 



Keywords: vascular plants, detritus, estuaries, aquatic invertebrates, 

 fishes 



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