Estuarine

The primary culprits in eutrophication appear to be excess nitrogen and phosphorus—from sources including fertilizer runoff and septic system effluent to atmospheric fallout from burning fossil fuels—which enter waterbodies and fuel the overgrowth of algae, which, in turn, reduces water quality and degrades estuarine and coastal ecosystems.

Located at the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands on the gulf coast of Florida, the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve represents one of the few remaining undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America.

Estuarine organisms can adapt quite well to changing conditions in estuaries. For example, fish or crabs are mobile and can move as needed throughout the day to adjust to changes in the estuary.

Dolphins, and especially these estuarine dolphins, have a low birth rate, a slow growth rate and a slow reproductive rate.

Estuarine dolphins can live in both saltwater and freshwater.

1977, Sewell H. Hopkins, Sam R. Petrocelli, Limiting Factors Affecting the Commercial Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Estuarine Pollution Control and Assessment: Proceedings of a Conference, Volume 1, page 179, The shellfishes, by far the most valuable part of gulf coast commercial fisheries, are even more estuarine than the finfishes.

The small lagoons of southern New Jersey receive an insignificant input of freshwater from watersheds of Cape May Peninsula compared to larger, more estuarine bays to the north (Kran 1975).

Some species are more estuarine than others, for example Pseudotolithus typus replaces P. senegalensis as conditions become more estuarine and Pentanemus quinquarius replaces Galeoides decadactylus.