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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;font-size:12pt"><DIV><DIV><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><p>This layer characterizes bottom-living plants and animals in Galveston Bay and principal plant communities within the park. </p></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dl></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Grassflats</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>Shallow bay margin with dense grasses, moderately diverse mollusk assemblage, depth <5 feet.</dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Bay with Reef</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>Enclosed bay with reef, away from tidal or river influence, mottled mud, high species diversity, infauna, mollusks, scattered clumps of oyster reefs, depth 3 to 8 feet.</dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Fresh to brackish-water bodies</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>Land-locked ponds and lakes, variable substrates, coastal bodies temporarily brackish or saline</dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Beach</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>Low tide to 5 feet above sea level, beach, swash zone, high energy, sand, shell debris infauna, back-beach sea-oats and halophytes, dunes, ghost crab. </dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Barrier flat and dune</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>vegetated barrier flat, foredune ridge, beach ridge, and vegetated flat, relief 5 to 15 feet, salt-tolerant grasses, rare mesquite and live oak-trees, ghost crab, small rodents, snakes, fowl.</dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Tidal flats</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>Sandflats, a few inches above mean sea level, undulatory sand surface with blue-green algal mats, thin halite film, marsh plants rare</dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dt>Salt-water marsh</dt></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN><dd>Salt-water marsh, frequently inundated by tides, sand, muddy sand to mud, cordgrass, glasswort, seepweed, sea-oxeye, mammals, fowl.</dd></SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN></dl></SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV> |