Site 3

Site 3 coordinates:

N38 47.402 W76 42.931 with an elevation of -7

There is a significant amount of low marsh area that lies between the water and the high marsh area. The gap is bigger because it was low tide as well the fact that we were on the inside of were the river had a bend. This means that on the inside there is less erosion because the water is not flowing towards it. Now on the opposite, far side of the river (as you can see in the bottom left picture) the river flow is directed towards the outside of the river, making more erosion on the far side and a much smaller low marsh zone.We found it very hard to canoe here because of how shallow it was. We often found our ore hitting the bottom of the marsh and getting stuck in the mud. The soil is brown because it is made up of organic matter that has accumulated and not broke down. When water overflows the low marsh it is shallow and warm because of the waters inability to hold oxygen. Plants in the low marsh have the ability to participate in photosynthesis throughout their entirety. They can do this because they have chlorophyll throughout their entire make up, which is also the reason they are entirely green. These plants leaves are always out of the water, in order to collect oxygen and nutrients. To make it possible to stay out of the water all the time these plants have lobes on their leaves, which are tiny air pockets to make them float above the water. These plants transport oxygen and gases between the leaves and the roots through aerenchyma; which is a spongy tissue with air spaces between its tissue, through out their whole stem. 
http://aas.bf.uni-lj.si/september2006/24videmsek.pdf