The Ecology of Open-Bay Bottoms of Texas: A Community Profile,

Abstract : Open-bay bottoms represent one of the most extensive habitats in any estuarine system, and while other habitats such as salt marshes and seagrass beds are important and are discussed relative to the open-bay bottoms systems, most of the attention is given to the benthic communities that exist in the unvegetated subtidal bottoms. Like the intertidal flats described by Peterson and Peterson (1979), the open-bay bottoms are also open systems and interact strongly with ocean waters through the tidal inlet, with marshes and intertidal flats on the periphery of the estuary, and with riverine systems where they enter the estuary. Thus, these systems are included and discussed herein to the extent they are needed to explain processes occurring within the open bay.