Long Island Sound is a 1,320-square-mile estuary separating the Connecticut mainland from Long Island on the New England coast. Millions of people reside along its 600-mile shore, but human inhabitants are just part of its intricate ecological web.
Long Island Sound's natural fringe is dominated by tidal marshes, part of the great belt of Atlantic and gulf tidal wetlands stretching from Maine to Texas. Those of Long Island Sound grade from salt to brackish to freshwater marshes as you travel upriver.
Tides demarcate different zones within the sound's estuarine marshes. The "low marsh," dominated by smooth cord-grass, is the area typically flooded by the vast majority of high tides. The "high marsh" is inundated by more extensive high tides, but is often dry for extended periods; its prevalent grasses, like salt meadow cord-grass, are usually shorter and more delicate.
The tides bring nutrients to immobile creatures like ribbed mussels, expand hunting opportunities for fish and crabs and facilitate reproductive cycles of invertebrates and the mummichog, a killifish.
More than 120 species of fish inhabit the sound, including flounder, herring and striped bass.
The productive marsh and offshore habitats of the sound attract numerous birds. Herons prowl the water line, osprey cruise for offshore fish and multitudes of shorebirds, seabirds and waterfowl add to the mix.
