What is the climate of a salt marsh like?

What causes a mangrove swamp or a salt marsh?

• The intercoastal side of an island (barrier island) is usually dominated by either salt marsh or Mangrove swamps. What determines which habitat is present?

• Answer:

  Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S. Such bosks are also part of the mangrove forest biome. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater (30 to 40 ppt), to water concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater (up to 90 ppt). There are many species of trees and shrubs adapted to saline conditions. Not all are closely related, and the term "mangrove" may be used for all of them, or more narrowly only for the mangrove family of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or even more specifically just for mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora. Mangroves form a characteristic saline woodland or shrubland habitat, called mangrove swamp, mangrove forest, mangrove or mangal.[3] Mangals are found in depositional coastal environments, where fine sediments (often with high organic content) collect in areas protected from high-energy wave action. Mangroves dominate three quarters of tropical coastlines. Salt marshes occur on low-energy coasts in temperate and high-latitudes. These typically include sheltered environments such as embankments, estuaries and the leeward side of barrier islands and spits. In the tropics and sub-tropics they are replaced by mangroves; an area that differs to a salt marsh in that instead of herbaceous plants, they are dominated by salt-tolerant trees. Therefore: ==> The difference is the lattitude. Mangrove swamps are tropical or sub-tropical, while salt marshes are located in temperate and higher latitudes. <==