Saltwater Marsh Saltwater marshes are marshy areas found near estuaries. They receive water daily from the ocean tides. The water in saltwater marshes is similar to that found in estuaries, but it often has more variety in salinity. The organisms that live in saltwater marshes must be able to live in salt water.
Saltwater marshes have water that is saltier than freshwater, but not as salty as ocean water. The plants found in saltwater marshes include marsh grasses and mangrove trees. Saltwater crocodiles, crustaceans, and migratory water birds are a few of the kinds of animals that may live in salt marsh ecosystems. |
Sea Many people use the terms "ocean" and "sea" interchangeably when speaking about the ocean, but there is a difference between the two terms when speaking of geography (the study of the Earth's surface).
Seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land and ocean meet. Typically, seas are partially enclosed by land. As seas are always near land marine life are abundant while oceans which are deeper and farther away from land have on few basic life forms like bacteria, microscopic plankton and shrimp. |
Ocean Oceans are large bodies of saltwater divided by continents. Oceans have many types of ecosystems depending on the characteristics (such as available sunlight, temperature, depth, and salinity) of that part of the ocean.
More organisms live in the shallow part of the ocean, which reaches from the coast to the continental slope, than in any other part of the ocean because sunlight can reach deep and the water is warm. This makes food easy to find. Some examples of organisms that live in the shallow ocean are jellyfish, seaweed, starfish, crabs, corals, and saltwater fish (such as tuna). Some organisms are able to live in the open ocean. Many of these organisms need to come to the surface frequently for air or to find food, but can also dive deep into the ocean. These organisms include plankton (which float in the upper regions of the water and provide food for many different animals), whales, sea turtles, dolphins, octopuses and sharks. The ocean ecosystem is the largest on Earth. |