schematically 

 gram. " 



by a complex dia- 



I think few would disagree with such 

 a conclusion, but Miller and Egler put 

 it another way: 



"... the present mosiac may be 

 thought of as a momentary 

 expression, different in the 

 past, destined to be different in 

 the future, and yet as typical as 

 would be a photograph of moving 

 clouds. " 



EPIBENTHIC ALGAE 



Species composition and distribu- 

 tion patterns of epibenthic algae on 

 the marsh surface are not well known. 

 Algae are not as conspicuous as 

 flowering plants and have received 

 less attention; the lower plants are 

 shorter-lived and have less special- 

 ized growth requirements. 



In addition to his investigations 

 on the succession of grasses on Romney 

 Marsh, near Boston, Chapman (1940) 

 also identified algal communities 

 which he recognized on the basis of 

 species composition, tidal range, and 

 season. Attempts to impose taxonomic 

 order on the marsh algae, however, 

 were not ^^ery convincing or useful. 

 As recently as 1967, Webber noted that 

 no specific accounts of New England 

 marsh algae had been published in the 

 27 years following Chapman's paper. 

 Her own work on the blue-green algae 

 of a marsh at Ipswich, Massachusetts, 

 identified over 30 species that 

 appeared to be associated with the 

 various higher plants (3 with Juncus , 

 13 with Spartina patens , 10 with S^. 

 alterniflora , and 4 from the sublit- 

 toral ), although no algal communities 

 or zones were really defined. Within 

 a year of Webber's publication, John 

 Blum's (1968) monograph, "Salt Marsh 

 Spartinas and Associated Algae," 

 appeared. While recognizing that 

 many of the dominant algae identified 

 by Chapman were characteristic of the 



28 



marshes, Blum concluded that: "most 

 species of salt marsh algae appear to 

 grow in miscellaneous mixtures with 

 other species. Observations of 

 numerous marshes impresses me with the 

 paucity of mixed communities which 

 are constant in make-up." General 

 observations, however, could be made 

 about the algae on the Cape Cod 

 marshes. For example, the algal 

 layer under the tall creek-bank S. 

 alterniflora consisted mainly of 

 diatoms growing on the mud surface, 

 while the high marsh stunted S^. 

 alterniflora was associated with 

 filamentous algae (Table 6) that grew 

 upward on the grass leaves and culms 

 to a height where the humidity became 

 too low to support algal growth. High 

 marsh algae also were found associated 

 with other plants such as Limonium , 

 Plantaqo , and Salicornia and in 

 unvegetated pannes. With the exception 

 of Calothrix , which grows up on the _S. 

 patens mat, there was virtually no 

 algal layer below the high marsh S^. 

 patens and Distichlis . 



The lack of algal cover over the 

 high marsh dominated by these species 

 is due to the shading of the marsh 

 surface by the dense S^. patens mat 

 (Blum 1968). On a spring day only 2% 

 to 3% of the incident light reached 

 the soil beneath the S^. patens - 

 Distichlis mat studied by Blum, while 

 50% to 55% reached the algal layer 

 under stunted and creek-bank S^. 

 alterniflora . The growth of epi- 

 benthic algae under S^. alterniflora 

 is light dependent and appears to 

 be greatest during spring and fall 

 when the grass cover is not as dense 

 (Sullivan and Daiber 1975; Van Raalte 

 et al. 1976). High light intensities 

 appear to favor the growth of 

 filamentous algae whereas diatoms 

 dominate in low light areas (Sullivan 

 1974; Sullivan and Daiber 1975). 



MARSH ANIMALS 



In the sea, the density and 

 kinetic energy of the water provide 



