Question

Anna waters her plants with salty water to help them grow better. Is her thinking correct?

Answer 1

It depends on the plant species.

Some plants like marsh grasses, Spartina patens and Spartina alterniflora, and eel grass Zoster marina, grow only in salty water or soil. They have mechanisms which maintain appropriate ionic concentrations of salt and solvents inside and outside the cell and would not grow in fresh water.

Other plants like pine trees cannot grow in salt water which is why you often see a fringe of dead pines on the edges of salt marshes - they grew until their roots reached a certain depth in the water table and then they died.

Hope that's helpful. :D

Answer 2

I'm always thinking how blues can fit all these information in her brain ... *applaud*

Answer 3

*laughs*

I was on the computational side of a project which gathered data on the distributions of all species (bacteria, plants, insects, sea animals, marine invertebrates, birds, the works) in a salt marsh/estuary as well as nutrient gradients and hydrology. The field workers did species counts and soil analysis on a 2x2 meter grid across a very large area. We then used the data to parameterise a mathematic model which looked at various things - interactions between the environment and the interactions and forcings between different organisms themselves. We also looked at the effects of chemicals and pollutants from a nearby road and drain.

I spent hardly any time in the field, but I spent enough time working out the relationships between all those various organisms and their roles in every esoteric ecologic cycle you can think of to remember what's in a salt marsh.