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Mud Flats

Mud Flats. By: Brandon Johnson, Drew Minor, Jacque Rotch, and Jessica Middleton. Location and Formation of Mud Flats. Mud flats are typically found in areas where the tidal waters flow slowly, such as sheltered bays, estuaries, and along gently shelving coasts.

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Mud Flats

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  1. Mud Flats By: Brandon Johnson, Drew Minor, Jacque Rotch, and Jessica Middleton

  2. Location and Formation of Mud Flats • Mud flats are typically found in areas where the tidal waters flow slowly, such as sheltered bays, estuaries, and along gently shelving coasts. • Where the muds are sufficiently stable to support vegetation, salt marshes may form, or in tropical areas, mangrove swamps.

  3. Life In A Mud Flat • Mud flats are very delicate eco systems. Plants that can withstand saltwater on their roots delicately grow providing nutrients for the animal life that survives here. The animal life in this area is very limited, generally left to crabs and periwinkles and other very small animals of this nature. The area, with its low vegetation and high amounts of salt do not make a good living area for mammals.

  4. Food Web of Mud Flats • The majority of energy in a Mud Flat food web comes from broken down organic matter be it detritus from marine plants or tissue from animals.

  5. Producers • The producers of Mud Flats consists of… • Gutweed - Enteromorpha spp. • Wracks -Fucus spp. • Sea Lettuce - Ulva icatuca • Eelgrass - Zostera sp .

  6. Herbivores • Sea hares, Aplysia californica

  7. Filter Feeders • Clams • Oysters • Soft shelled Clam, Mya arenaria • Ghost Shrimp, feed on detritus filtered from the water and sifted from the substrate by the hairs on their second and third legs

  8. Carnivores • Predaceous sea slugs, Navanax inermis • Moon snails • Ragworm, Nereis virens • Flounder

  9. Other • Lugworm, Arenicola marina, feeds on micro organisms and detritus • Shrimp, Corophium volutator, feeds on bacteria and diatoms • Innkeeper worm, Urechis, feeds using a mucous net to trap tiny food particles

  10. Birds • Brent Goose - Branta bernicia • Shelduck - Tadorna tadorna • Curlew - Numenius arquata • Black-Tailed - Limosa limosa • Bar-Tailed Godwits - Limosa lapponica • Oystercatcher - Haematopus ostralegus • Redshank - Tringa totanus

  11. Birds • Dunlin - Calidris alpina • Teal - Anacyclus latealatus • Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus • Turnstone - Arenaria interpres • Lapwing - Vanellus vanellus • Common Sandpiper - Actitis hypoleucos • Greenshank - Tringa nebularia • Knot - Calidris canutus

  12. Organism Facts • The innkeeper worm provides a home for Goby’s, Pea Crabs, clams, and Scale worms. • Scale worms and Pea Crabs compete for food leftover by the innkeeper worm.

  13. Problems/Concerns • Species invasion • Biggest problem is hybridized cordgrass which can completely destroy all other species in the Mud Flat • Other hybridized species invade the natives create ecological and evolutionary consequences

  14. Prevention • Expeditions of any kind to foreign countries or ecosystems are required to make a careful check for any stowaways that might be onboard and to contain any foreign species being intentionally transported

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