WILDLIFE OF THE ATLANTIC COAST SALT MARSHES 3 



The zones of salt-marsh plants are not stationary but rather may 

 be regarded as ceaselessly shifting. In the relatively quiet waters 

 where the marshes form, sand washed up by the tide and silt caught 

 by such salt-water plants as seaweeds and eelgrass build up the 

 bottom tot the point that cordgrass can grow. This then occupies 

 the soil with its dense and resistant root systems, entraps more mud, 

 and holds the debris from its own annually replaced stems. As 

 this new foundation for plants approaches the mean high-tide level, 

 the marsh-hay types of plants take hold. These build again by 

 catching sand washed in from the sea, and loam coming down from 

 the land. Then goldenrod, hightide-bush, and groundselbush may 

 get a start, further firm the soil, and make place for bayberry, 

 chokeberry, wild rose, and other bird-borne plants. An island then 

 is well on its course of development, and if man does not run fire 

 or graze cattle over the area, it may become clothed with trees. 

 Where the coast is sinking, however, building up must be only a 

 preliminary to tearing down, and as the various zones of the marsh 

 work inland, low islands, even if forested, must give way. When 

 salt water kills their vegetation and the protecting belt of marsh 

 moves landward, the islands are soon worn down by the wash of open 

 water. All this is a slow, a very slow movement, however, and in a 

 lifetime men may see of it only a step or two. 



PLANTS OF THE ZONES AND THEIR VALUE TO WILDLIFE 



On the Atlantic coast, seaweeds and algae in variety thrive both in 

 the ocean itself and. in saline sounds and lagoons where tidal move- 

 ment is free. Eelgrass grows in similar waters from Beaufort, 

 N. G, north, and turtlegrass and manateegrass on the Florida coast. 

 Wigeongrass lives in usually more quiet and shallow pools and 

 occurs in suitable places along the entire coast line. 



EELGRASS 



Eelgrass (Zostera marina) has narrow, tapelike, dark-green leaves 

 growing from a jointed reddish rootstock, and bears its small barrel- 

 shaped seeds in thin pods enclosed by the bases of the leaves. It 

 inhabits a considerable range of depths and sometimes is left bare 

 at low tide. In general it thrives best in water in which there is 

 considerable tidal movement. It is a good wild-fowl food plant, and, 

 having been the chief dependence of sea brant, its scarcity in recent 

 years, due to a disease, has had an unfavorable effect on the numbers 

 of that bird. 1 Eelgrass was eaten to a considerable^ extent also by 

 the Canada goose, and its seeds by the black duck; it was taken in 

 smaller quantity also by a variety of other waterfowl. The plant 

 is known under a number of local names, as salt-water grass, sea 

 grass, sea wrack, and sea hay. The last two names refer to the 

 windrows of it cast up on the beach, particularly by winter storms. 

 It dries and bleaches there and is used as bedding for domestic ani- 

 mals and for insulation and packing. When plentiful it has been 

 harvested in large quantities for commercial purposes. The fluffy, 



iFor more complete information see the following: Cottam, C. the present srrrATiON 

 regarding eelgrass (zostera marina). U. S. Dept. Agr. Wildlife Research and Manage- 

 ment Leaflet BS-110, 7 pp. 1938. [Mimeographed.] Obtainable on request from the 

 U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



