DUE TO RECENT STORM DAMAG, YOU MAY, IN PLACE OF ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS, SEND ME YOUR OBSERVATION OF THE AREA, OR POST A PHOTO AT THE LOCATION!
Since many cache paperless, I have put the logging requirements at the page top as well as the bottom:
To log this cache, you must e-mail me the ANSWER to at least 1 of the QUESTIONS/Elements listed below. OR YOU CAN POST A PHOTO of you and/or your group with the salt marsh in the background. Please try to have your GPSr in the photo. Optional requirement: If you would like, in place of the questions you may post a photo. Also, do NOT post your answers in your log, even if encrypted. Your photo may be from any place on Pawleys Island as long as the salt marsh is visible in your photo.
1): Depending on when you visit this cache, your observations will vary. What do you observe around you at the cache site? _____________________.
2): From your observation tell me if the tide is coming in or going out, and how did you arrive at that conclusion? _______________________________.
3): What animals or marsh-life do you see present ___________________.
4): From your observation, estimate the distance across the marsh at the cache location.________.
5): If it is not high tide, from your observation give me your estimate of how much higher, in feet, that the water level would be at full high tide. ___.
This Earthcache is located on Pawleys Island, which is a barrier island found on the South Carolina Coastline, about 12 miles above Georgetown, S.C.
For those vacationing along “The Grand Strand”, it is around 25 miles below Myrtle Beach. Litchfield Beach is right above Pawleys, and Surfside and Garden City Beaches, which are just above Murrells Inlet, are only a few miles away.
A salt marsh is defined as a wetland. Swamps are another type of wetland, but, while a swamp has bushes and trees, a marsh’s flora consists mainly of grasses, specifically here, Spartina Grass. While many people think of marshes as worthless land, they could not be further from the truth. According to the Nature Guide to the Carolina Coast by Paul Meyer, which I used for much of the information found here, marshes are some of the most productive land on earth. It is estimated by scientists that up to 95% of the commercially valuable fish and shellfish found in our oceans depend on the salt marsh for their development.
A salt marsh is usually found in a protected area where the land and sea meet. In our example here, the barrier island known as Pawleys Island provides that protection, allowing its extensive salt marsh to flourish. A barrier island's main line of protection comes from the primary and secondary sand dunes that help block wind and wave action. The island forms a “barrier” to winds, tides, waves, and storms.
Twice each day, the salt marsh fills and drains due to the action of the tides. On Pawleys, as the tide “comes in” water flows from the ocean around both the north and south ends, or “inlets”, of the island, filling the inlet creek and the salt marsh. When the tide “turns” and “goes out”, the process reverses, and the water flows out. Due to this ebb and flow, the marsh grasses are exposed and dry at low tide, and mostly covered at high tide. This constant flow keeps the marsh from becoming stagnant, and also allows the large amounts of nutrients produced from the decaying parts of marsh plants as they die to be released into the estuarine waters, thereby supporting part of the food chain that begins in the salt marshes. Below are some photographs of two views I took at the cache site showing the view at low tide and at high tide.
Low Tide High Tide
Spartina Alterniflora grass is the predominate grass you see here. It has adapted to the extreme marsh conditions. It is one of the few plants that can survive the high salt concentrations of salt water. It does this by excreting salt crystals to conserve water. Plants of this type are called halophytes. Only about 2% of all plants are in this class. Spartina Grass spreads by way of a rhizome root system beneath the surface. The grass becomes dense and forms a baffle, which encourages the deposition of fine particulate sediment, including organic matter. The grass stabilizes the sediments much the way Sea Oats and Beach Grass stabilize sand dunes.
At low tide, the mud flats of the marsh are revealed. These broad, flat expanses are covered at higher tides. At low tide you can see a lot of the life that is hidden when the tide is high. Mud snails(which can be seen in the center photograph below) and oysters are present, as well as fiddler and hermit crabs, and numerous other animals. This mud is a clay-silt mixture that has a black to gray-black color. This color is mostly due to hydrogen sulfide(which can give off a “rotten egg” smell) made by anaerobic bacteria interacting with iron in the mud resulting in iron sulfides. Below about 1 inch deep, the mud is virtually void of oxygen. Many burrowing animals live in this using tubes to get oxygen from the surface.
So, as we see, a salt marsh can not only be quite beautiful, it is also a vital and important ecosystem valuable to both man and ocean sealife. It is very important that these bountiful wetlands be protected and not damaged by development or pollution.
An Egret wading in These are the mud snails that A closeup of the mud and
the marsh at low can be observed at low tide Spartina Grass at low tide
tide hunting for food. when the mud flats are exposed. Note the color of the mud.
Permission for this cache has been granted by P.M. of Georgetown County Parks and recreation.
Happy Caching!
* * * * * FTF HONORS GO TO....bobandia!!! * * * * *
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