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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. [1] Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone.
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, [1] [2] is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root brak.
Model of Estuary. The residence time of water is a key variable determining the health of an estuary, particularly from human-induced stresses.Rapid flushing ensures that there is insufficient time for sediment accumulation or dissolved oxygen depletion in the estuary; thus a well flushed estuary is intrinsically more robust than a poorly flushed estuary. [1]
Other types of estuaries also exist and have similar characteristics as traditional brackish estuaries. The Great Lakes are a prime example. There, river water mixes with lake water and creates freshwater estuaries. [20] Estuaries are extremely productive ecosystems that many humans and animal species rely on for various activities. [21]
Neuston, also called pleuston, are organisms that live at the surface of a body of water, such as an ocean, estuary, lake, river, wetland or pond.Neuston can live on top of the water surface or submersed just below the water surface.
Microorganisms make up about 70% of the marine biomass. [4] A microorganism, or microbe, is a microscopic organism too small to be recognised adequately with the naked eye. In practice, that includes organisms smaller than about 0.1 mm. [12]: 13
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla , families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy .
Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts "lagoon" to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, and calls any bay that receives a regular flow of fresh water an "estuary". Davis does state that the terms "lagoon" and "estuary" are "often loosely applied, even in scientific literature". [1]