Snowy Egret searching for food in the Newport
Back Bay
Ecological Significance:
Important habitat for resident and
migratory birds.
Provides information on osmoregulatory
mechanisms of plants that maybe useful for crops. Soil that is too
saline could be used if plants could be engineered with similar mechanisms.
Ex. 30,000 km of desert coast
line and 400 million hectares of desert with potential water supplies
that are too salty for crop plants. Every year over ~200,000 hectars
of irrigated crop land becomes too salty to do any agriculture on them
(Raven, Evert, Eichhorn, p 744)
You could breed tolerance into
plants which could then be used for human consumption or livestock feed.
Newport Back Bay Estuary
Conservation:
California Native Marsh Lands have
been reduced by 91%. The remaining Marshlands is only
9% (Callaway & Zedler 1998)
Management:
The addition of salt to the environment
is a possible way of conserving Salicornia becuase it reduces the likelihood
of other species invading and prevailing against the already established
pickle weed. Pickleweed is able to withstand high concentrations
of salinity in the environment.
Using salt also increases germination
and growth responses of Salicornia (Kuhn and Zedler 1997)
