Do marshes develop their own tidal channels?

PERILLO, GERARDO M. E.; IRIBARNE, OSCAR O

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Joint IAPSO-IABO Assemblies, 2001: An Ocean Odyssey; 2001

IAPSO-IABO

Mechanisms for the formation of creeks in tidal flats are rarely discussed in literature. There are somegeneral theories about their formation but there is no actual hard data evidence to demonstrates them. It isgenerally believed that marshes inherit creeks from previous tidal flats that their plants colonize. The aimof this paper is to present three mutually exclusive cases from marshes in Argentina where creeks areformed by either purely physical or biological-physical interactions. Except for Loyola Bay, this is thefirst quotation of these mechanisms. They may represent special cases, but the fact that all three of themoccur along the coast of Argentina, could indicate that the same or totally new processes are liable to befound somewhere else.