Microbiological activity in estuaries

In Chesapeake Bay, a large estuary on the east coast of the USA, phytoplankton blooms in the high-salinity part of the estuary generate large amounts of organic matter which sink into the deep waters. The deep waters are isolated 

Over the last few hundred years there has been large-scale loss of wetland environments in rivers and estuaries throughout the world due to development pressures and flood control measures. The continued loss of wetlands removes valuable ecological habitats and also reduces the capacity for both carbon storage and nutrient removal by the processes described above. In the Humber estuary (UK), more than 90% of the intertidal marshes and supratidal wetlands have been lost to land reclamation over the last 300 years or so, resulting in a 99% reduc- 

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