Return to Natural Disturbances to Estuaries

Dead floating plant material, called wrack, is often deposited on salt marshes by high spring tides. Wracks can be quite large—up to hundreds of square meters, and up to 30 centimeters thick. If these wracks are deposited in the high marsh, they often become stranded (Bertness, 1999), smothering all of the plant life beneath them. (Photo: Weeks Bay NERRS site)

 

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