Two types of tidal marsh occur in Nova Scotia: salt marshes and coastal fresh marshes. Both are marine intertidal areas with soft substrate, colonized predominantly by grasses. They occur only where there is regular flooding and nearby sources of fine sediment.

Salt marshes form on stable or emerging coastlines when sediment accumulates in sheltered intertidal areas in estuaries, behind spits, bars or islands, and in protected bays. In Nova Scotia, where coastlines are submerging at a slow rate, marshes form when the rate of sedimentation exceeds the rate of submergence.

Salt marshes are among the most productive ecosystems in the world; however, Nova Scotia marshes are less productive than those found along the Atlantic coast of the United States and into the Gulf of Mexico.

The key plant of the salt marsh is cord grass, Spartina. Marshes are often nurseries for juveniles of commercially important fish species. They are important feeding and breeding habitats for waterfowl. Marshes were used by early settlers as a rich source of hay. Colonists dyked much of the Bay of Fundy salt marsh, converting it to permanent cropland.

This Document Includes:

Formation
Physical Aspects
Ecosystem
Successional Sequence

Low Marsh
Middle and High Marsh

Seasonal Cycle
Plants

Salt marsh Plants
Coastal Fresh-marsh Plants

Animals

Coastal Fresh-marsh Animals

Special Features
Distribution in Nova Scotia

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Additional Keywords:
Cord Grass, Bay of Fundy, Spartina spp. , pannes, Great Blue Heron, waterfowl, shorebirds, songbirds, algae, rockweed, Glasswort, Sea-blite, Seaside Sand Spurrey, Orach, Marsh Hay, halophytes, Sea-lavender, Arrow Grass, Seaside Plantain, Milkwort, grasses, sedges, rushes, angiosperms, microscopic fungi, salt excretion, water retention, Seashore Salt-grass, Eel Grass, Sea Lettuce, Widgeon Grass, Ditch-grass, Horned Pondweed, bulrushes, cattails, Sphagnum spp., cranberry, Sundew, Pitcher Plant, Seaside Buttercup, Marsh Cinquefoil, Silverweed, insects, spiders, amphipods, isopods, bivalve molluscs, Soft-shell Clam, Fingernail Clam, Blue Mussel, Ribbed Mussel, gastropod, periwinkles, Spire Snail, Eastern Mud Snail, anemone, Nematostella, sea slug, killifish, sticklebacks, silversides, eels, flounder, ducks, herons, Sharp-tailed Sparrow, water boatmen, flies, mosquitos, succineid snails, geese, Muskrat, raccoon, mink, Northern Harrier, Elephant Grass, Mi'kmaq

Associated Topics:

T4 Colonization
T7 The Coast
T10 Plants
T11.5 Freshwater Wetland Birds and Waterfowl
T11.6 Shorebirds and other Birds of Coastal Wetlands
T11.17 Marine Invertebrates
T12.7 The Coast and Resources

Associated Habitats:

H1 Offshore
H2 Coastal
H2.6 Dune System
H6.3 Mixedwood Forest