Salt Marsh

A salt marsh is a coastal wetland biome of low-lying land regularly flooded and drained by the tides, dominated by salt-tolerant grasses, rushes and low shrubs able to grow rooted in waterlogged, saline soil rather than the trees found in a freshwater swamp or a tropical mangrove forest. Common in temperate latitudes where mangroves cannot survive winter cold, salt marshes trap sediment, buffer inland areas from storm surge and serve as a nursery ground for many coastal fish and shellfish species, much as mangrove forests do in warmer latitudes. They are counted among the most productive biomes on Earth per unit area, though extensive historical drainage for agriculture and coastal development has left many salt marsh systems reduced from their original extent.