Mudflat • Saltmarshes • Morphological relationships

Saltmarshes are best understood as part of a hierarchy of landforms. The largest scale features, estuaries or bays, are made up of a number of landforms which may include composite mudflat/saltmarsh shorelines. This type of composite shore is not a random association, because saltmarshes depend on mudflats (or sandflats) and vice versa, so that the two are often found together. Within this composite unit another set of smaller scale morphological features can be defined, including saltmarsh creeks or mudflat channels. Each of these features has evolved to fit into the hierarchy and each has evolved a shape and a set of processes which tends to give it long term stability even though, in many cases, short term variations in shape may occur due, for example, to storms or other infrequent events.

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