South Carolina has over a half-million acres of coastal marshes, more than any other state on the east coast. Of this amount, over 300,000 acres are salt marsh. Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that form a transition zone between land and sea. They are constantly changing, as they are regularly flooded by seawater as the tides rise and fall twice a day. The constant ebb and flow of the tides and river currents ensure a mix of nutrients from inland and offshore that sustain many prey species such as shrimp, crab and fish larvae, attracting many game fish. The low wave energy found in the salt marshes makes it a rich nursery habitat for many species of fish. In this sense, the marsh is extremely valuable for the South Carolina economy, as 75% of animals harvested as seafood here, including offshore species, spend all or part of their lives in the waters surrounding the marshes. This includes species such as the blue crab, white shrimp, and red drum. Additionally, waterfowl, wading birds, river otters, and diamond back terrapins, among others, depend on these marshes for food, breeding sites, and overwintering locations. It’s not just a habitat to many resident species, but a critical stop for migrating birds. Many bird species such as herons, egrets, and ospreys feed on the fish, fiddler crabs and shrimp that live in the marsh.
Coastal communities are becoming overwhelmed, with over half of Americans now living on the coast. The impact of pollution within watersheds surrounding marshes is significant, disrupting the food web with the potential to kill off certain species. Every action we make can have an impact on the planet, especially in habitats like the salt marsh.
I chose to create the following six paintings using sands from dried pluff mud at two separate locations, the paintings loosely referential but showing the rich variety of textures, colors, objects found in marsh landscapes. I hope that through these images, one can understand the richness found at even the lowest level at the marsh - looking directly down at the pluff mud that sustains so much life. Through this, I hope the viewer can see how critical it is to preserve this beautiful habitat, not just in South Carolina but along the entire coast.
Clay soil and pluff mud intersect at this marsh on the edge of the Ashley River on James Island, S.C. Salt marshes are one of the most productive natural resource areas in the entire world. In this painting, you can see many shells and rocks as well as pieces of red clay on the surface of the pluff mud. Pluff mud is the South Carolina term for the soft marsh substrate that provides a home for critters such as fiddler crabs and periwinkle snails. The mud is slippery and sucks you in with a step that can take you in sometimes all the way to your hips. It has a pungent but sweet aroma that combines with the salty air to give the lowcountry a distinct smell of home.
Spartina grass is pictured in this painting, the most abundant salt marsh plant in South Carolina. It can produce more organic matter than the even the most productive wheat field, and the dead marsh plants are a source of nourishment for many species. When the grass dies back each fall, bacteria compose it into detritus that serves as the bottom of the salt marsh food web, along with algae. This is the basis of the food chain - the detritus nourishes the zooplankton, shellfish (clams, shrimp, oysters, crabs), snails, and some types of fish, which then serve as food for many fishes as well as birds and mammals. All the creatures in the salt marsh ecosystem ultimately depend on the spartina grass for food supply. In this painting, you can see holes that lead to burrows for fiddler crabs that dominate the pluff mud surface.
Marshes serve as a buffer to the mainland by absorbing and slowing storm surges - they cause land to accumulate, decreasing the amount of water in a flood. They benefit coastal communities tremendously by absorbing energy from hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as protecting the coastline from erosion. Carbon and many pollutants are stored in the layers of pluff mud, kept from entering the atmosphere, helping to decrease some of the effects of climate change and ocean pollution. However, with climate change and rising sea levels, some salt marshes are beginning to drown, making coastlines lose wildlife habitat and nursery grounds for commercial species. It is critical to protect the marshes as they protect us.
Here, we see a variety of shells layered in the pluff mud at Fort Johnson, where the mud is mixed with sand and we see many shells that have washed up with the tides. Some of these shell fragments belong to oysters. Oysters form complex living reefs in many sections of coastal creeks and rivers, tending to grow on tidal flats or become buried under the marsh. These reefs host many other organisms, one of their many roles serving the ecosystem, giving oysters the label of “ecosystem engineers.” Intertidal oyster habitats are critical to healthy functioning of estuaries and salt marshes as they filter water, provide a habitat for other species, and are another of the marsh’s lines of defense against shoreline erosion.
In this painting, we see the dried surface of pluff mud in the marsh during low tide. Closer to the water, the mud was slowly beginning to be covered again as the tide stared to rise. This area of the marsh is called the low marsh, which is flooded regularly by incoming tides and subsequently drained as the tide flows back out to the waters. The low salt marsh is constantly covered then exposed by the rise and fall of the tides, in a tidal cycle of twelve hours. Above the low marsh, farther from the waters, is the high marsh. The high marsh floods irregularly, during neap and spring tides.