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How does Spartina survive?
It is able to out-compete other species because of its ability to tolerate daily exposure to seawater, move essential oxygen to the roots through a series of channels that extend from leaf to root, and its ability to quickly occupy available space by extending underground stems to new locations.
What is the importance of cord grass?
Smooth cordgrass is also known as saltmarsh cordgrass. It is the dominant grass in the Bay’s salt marshes. This grass can be used to control shoreline erosion. It also provides important habitat for marsh periwinkles, ribbed mussels and fiddler crabs.
How does Spartina or cordgrass get excrete excess salt?
alterniflora from the other salt marsh grasses. Flowering inflorescence of Spartina alterniflora. It is also able to deal with the high salt levels in the water by excreting excess salt through its leaves. In fact, you can see and feel the resulting salt crystals on the surface of its leaves when this occurs.
What adaptations does Spartina alterniflora have that allows it to survive along the SC Coastal Zone?
Spartina can excrete salt from glands on its leaves which allows it to survive in salt water. Algae on the leaf’s surface provides food for grazers, such as the periwinkle snail.
How does spartina or cordgrass get excrete excess salt?
How do you plant smooth cord grass?
Place young plants 18-72 inches apart (45.5 to 183 cm.). The best water depths for establishing plants are up to 18 inches deep (45.5 cm.). Deeper plantings usually result in new plants drowning. Areas that flood twice per day are ideal, as they represent the conditions the plant experiences in nature.
What does a cord grass eat?
They live in salt marshes on blades of cordgrass. They eat algae, including diatoms that are deposited on the grass by the tidal water. Their predators include blue crabs and shore birds.