ESTUARY CONDITIONS 1

Estuary Conditions

Galen Molk

Southern Oregon University

ESTUARY CONDITIONS 2
An estuary is a semi-enclosed body of water where two chemically distinct bodies of
water meet and commingle. The environment of an estuary is largely controlled by tidal
influences, but is protected from the full impact of oceanic waves and winds by the surrounding
land. Where the freshwater of a river meets the saline seawater, the waters combine to form a
brackish mixture. Its important to first understand the characteristics of brackish water, where it
occurs, and how it can be influenced and modified by the environment. On top of this, the way in
which an organism functions in and deals with a variety of salt concentrations is extremely
relevant to understanding estuarine life. Finally, outlined below are a handful of organisms found
in estuaries that are currently threatened or endangered.
Brackish is a term for water that has a salinity between freshwater and seawater. A salt
concentration of around thirty-five parts per thousand (3.5 percent) is found in seawater.
Brackish water occurs in a variety of ecosystems, estuaries being among the most common.
However it is also found in enclosed systems such as lakes and ponds. Garrison Lake nearby Port
Orford, Oregon, has a history of alternating between freshwater and brackish conditions for
centuries. The lake is separated from the adjacent ocean by ridges of sand dunes. The sand dunes
are constantly, albeit subtly shifting over time. These physical dynamics affect the route of the
lakes outlet stream, which winds and wends its way to the ocean. During times of freshwater
conditions, the stream has followed a route as long as a quarter-mile to ocean. When brackish
water has been prevalent, the outlet to the sea has been much more direct, turning the lake into an
inlet. It is for this reason that Garrison Lake had until fifty years ago been deemed Garrison
Lagoon on local maps. Additionally, enclosed water bodies in proximity to the coast can be
brackish from large saline inputs due to extreme storms. Brackish ponds or wetlands can even be
found far inland depending on the salt concentrations of recent rainfall and snow melts.

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However, the most consistently brackish conditions, and perhaps the most ecologically
important, are found in river estuaries on the coasts, mangrove swamps, and salt marshes. These
locales receive a semidiurnal, or twice-a-day input of seawater from the oceans high tides.
The salt concentration levels found in brackish water are extremely influential on the types of
organisms found in estuaries. The majority of aquatic organisms thrive in either saltwater or
freshwater, but not both. However many species have developed adaptations to make estuaries a
well-suited habitat for themselves. All organisms have a form of osmoregulation, the
physiological process of managing water loss and regulating water gain, as well as salt intake
and output. For example, most marine organisms are isotonic, meaning their interior osmotic
pressure (the concentration of a solute; in this case, salt) is equal to the osmotic pressure of the
water environment. This characteristic classifies these organisms as osmoconformers:
conforming to the salt concentration of their environment. Organisms in this group include
echinoderms, mollusks, arthropods, hagfish, sharks, and other phyla. Osmoconformers gain and
lose water at equal rates, expending little to no energy in the act of expelling water or salt from
the body. However, if these animals are introduced to water that is drastically more or less saline
than seawater, the organisms tissues tend to swell or shrink, respectively, their organelles and
cell membranes become damaged, and they can die. These animals are called stenohaline, steno
meaning narrow range and hal meaning salt, referring to their inability to exist outside their
environmental saline parameters.
Osmoregulators are a contrasting type of organism that controls their internal saline
osmolarity (the concentration of salt in their bodily fluids) to a more or less static degree through
physiological mechanisms. Osmoregulators in saltwater environments maintain an osmolarity
less saline than the water they live in, whereas osmoregulators in freshwater environments are

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more saline than the surrounding waters. The most advanced and efficient osmoregulators
however are Euryhaline animals; eury meaning broad. These animals are able to subsist in a
broad range of saline environments. Therefore, euryhaline animals are the ideal inhabitants for
the fluctuating salinity of an estuary.
The following is an overview of a variety of estuarine species currently classified as an
Endangered Species or a Species of Concern. According to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) [2016], a Species of Concern is a species which has
attracted concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available
to indicate a need to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. An Endangered Species
is classified as a species threatened or endangered by any of the following factors: (1) present or
threatened destruction, modification or curtailment of its habitat or range; (2) overutilization of a
species for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (3) disease or predation;
(4) inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; and (5) other natural or manmade factors
affecting the continuation of its existence.
The Alabama Shad (Alosa alabamae) is a fish found in the Gulf of Mexico near New
Orleans and in the Apalachicola (FL) and Weeks Bay (AL) estuarine reserves. They are
euryhaline, spawning in medium to large freshwaters anywhere from the Mississippi River to the
Suwannee River in Florida. Upon maturation, the adults migrate to the saltwater of the ocean
where they live the majority of their remaining lives. The Alabama Shad belongs to the family
Clupeidae, sharing similar appearance and biology with herrings, other shad, sardines, and
menhaden. They can be distinguished from these close relatives by a distinct notch in their upper
jaw. They have one row of bony teeth on their tongue that they use to manipulate their food,

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consisting mostly of small larval fishes and invertebrates in the water column. During the
spawning run upriver, adults do not feed.
The Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), also called the rainbow trout, is possibly the
most diverse Pacific salmonid species (Barnhart 1986). It exhibits varying degrees of anadromy,
or fish migration, for feeding and reproductive purposes. In addition, reproductive biology varies
throughout the species. O. mykiss can be extremely anadromous, traversing great distances in
their life span. Alternately, they can be seen as permanent residents of freshwater ecosystems. An
individual of the anadromous variety can produce young that will be non-anadromous, and vice
versa. Those exhibiting migratory tendencies are known as Steelhead while their residential
relatives are termed Rainbow. Some closeby Estuarine Reserves where this species is found
include Padilla Bay in Washington, South Slough in Oregon, San Francisco Estuary and Elkhorn
Slough in California. A long list of threats from humankind impact O. mykiss, including logging,
agriculture and development, excessive fishing, and dams. Dams and hydropower development
can block trout access to their spawning environment, changes water temperature and turbidity,
and block anadromy. Logging, mining and agricultural development leads to increased stream
sediment buildup and loss of shade protection and food sources provided to the water by
surrounded forest environment. Steelhead trout use freshwater and estuarine areas, meaning they
are extremely susceptible to inland pollution. Supporting non-governmental organization
programs that protect threatened populations and showing advocacy for the Species of Concern
program through donations, volunteer work, and voting are active ways to protect this species, as
well as many others.
Another fish that is found in many of the same estuarine reserves as the Steelhead trout is
the Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus). They can also be found further north in areas such as the

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Kachemak Bay in Alaska. This species was historically excessively overfished from 1938 to
1992 with a median commercial catch during that period of 1.9 million pounds. This fish like the
Steelhead is anadromous, migrating inland to freshwater to lay their eggs. Most often, they
spawn once and then die, a behavior known as semelparity (as opposed to iteroparity, an
organisms strategy of engaging in multiple reproductive cycles over one lifespan). Euchalon
were once called candlefish because the whole fish was fished, dried, fitted with a wick, and
used as a candle. This fishing would be timed to happen around late winter through mid spring,
when Euchalon around three to five years old return to the freshwater to spawn. During this
season, a spawning adults body weight was about fifteen percent fat, hence the popularity as a
candle substitute. Euchalon are euryhaline, migrating between sea and freshwater throughout
their lives.
The largest of any salmon, the Chinook, can exceed forty pounds and three feet in length.
They are also anadromous, migrating from the salty ocean up to three thousand miles upstream
to spawn. They can be found in the same estuarine reserves as the Euchalon and also are species
exhibiting semelparity. Chinook spend anywhere from one to eight years (more commonly two
to four) at sea. While in the ocean, they are dark-greenish to blue-black on the top of their head
and back, while exhibiting a silvery to white coloration on their lower sides and belly. This is
most likely an adaptation of camouflage to blend in with darker colors of the depths to a predator
from above and to appear bright in correlation with down-welling light to predation from below.
In addition to fish species that have developed unique adaptations to live in the saline waters of
estuaries, Johnsons seagrass is an example of a photosynthetic perennial plant species that has
found a way to live in the ebb and flow of an estuary. Estuaries constitute one of the worlds

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most dynamic and constantly fluctuating environments and present a wide potential for scientific
research into organism adaptation.

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References

Barnhart, R. A. 1986. Species profiles: Life histories and environmental requirements of

coastal fishes and invertebrates--steelhead. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv. Biol. Rep. 82(11.60), 21p.

"Brackish." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth
Lerner. 5th ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. Science in Context. Web. 26 May 2016.

Johnson. (1985). Garrison Lake (Curry). Retrieved May 26, 2016, from
http://aol.research.pdx.edu/lakes/17100306000373

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2016, January 04). Proactive

Conservation Program: Species of Concern. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/concern/
Willmer, P., G. Stone, and I. Johnson. Environmental Physiology of Animals. Oxford:
Blackwell Science, 2000.