salt marsh

American  

noun

1. a marshy tract that is wet with salt water or flooded by the sea.

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salt marsh British  

noun

1. an area of marshy ground that is intermittently inundated with salt water or that retains pools or rivulets of salt or brackish water, together with its characteristic halophytic vegetation

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salt marsh Scientific  

1. A marsh in which the water is saline, especially a coastal wetland that has halophyte vegetation and is regularly flooded at high tide. Coastal salt marshes help to preserve the shoreline by accommodating storm tides.

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Other Word Forms

• salt-marsh adjective
• saltmarsh adjective

Etymology

Origin of salt marsh

before 1000; Middle English saltmerche, Old English sealtne mersc

Example Sentences

EDF then suggested a plan to flood 1,500 acres of nearby coast to create a salt marsh breeding ground to offset any fish death.

From The Wall Street Journal

To preserve the important intertidal areas and salt marshes off our coasts for the future, we need more turbid water.

From Science Daily

Birds flock here for the blend of the estuary, mud flats, open saltwater and salt marsh.

From Seattle Times

Reithmaier and her colleagues enlisted the help of scientists from 12 different countries to analyse intertidal carbon transport in 45 mangrove swamps and 16 salt marshes around the world.

From Science Daily

"After a few decades, in areas the sea otters had recolonized, salt marshes and creekbanks were becoming more stable again, despite rising sea levels, increased water flow from inland sources, and greater pollution," Hughes said.

From Science Daily