Digital Commons Network^™

Wetlands Evaluation And Management In Virginia, Eileen L. Shea, N. Bartlett Theberge

Reports

Complex biotic communities which have lately been recognized as being of vital importance to aquatic and upland ecosystems have evolved at Virginia's land-water interface. Most obvious are the beaches and vast intertidal stands of halophytic (salt-tolerant) plants on the periphery of the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay and their subordinate estuaries. Less obvious, but no less important, are nonvegetated intertidal flats and coastal freshwater marshes. Inland swamps and freshwater marshes complete the inventory; though more limited in extent than their coastal analog. Complex biotic communities which have lately been recognized as being of vital importance to aquatic and upland ecosystems have …