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Estuaries’ Role in the Cycle of Life
In the cycle of life, estuaries provide shelter, food and nursery grounds for animals. Decomposing animals in estuaries can provide nutrients for other organisms.
Life teems in estuaries. Some animals live in estuaries year round. Others pass through on their migration route, while others visit estuaries temporarily to reproduce. For example, migrating birds of all different species stop off to rest, refuel, and continue to their specific destinations. Deer and elk migrate through to their winter, or summer habitats. Young salmon whisk in and out of sea grass before they migrate into the ocean. And some species of salmon even migrate across estuaries to go from ocean to freshwater, or vice versa.
As plants and animals die and decompose in estuaries, the decaying matter adds nutrients, or organic matter, to the estuarine system for other animals to use as energy.
And life cycles and recycles in estuaries. Animals, plants, insects and marine life actively participate in the food web. From microscopic phytoplankton, flashing manta rays to a wading deer, life lives and dies in estuaries. Their bodies decompose to recycle nutrients and organic matter.
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Last Updated on: 06-24-2008
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