Brackish water is water that has more
salinity than
fresh water, but not as much as
seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in
estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil
aquifers. The word comes from the
Middle Dutch root
"brak," meaning "salten" or "salty". Certain human activities can produce brackish water, in particular certain
civil engineering projects such as
dikes and the flooding of coastal marshland to produce brackish water pools for
freshwater prawn farming. Brackish water is also the primary waste product of the
salinity gradient power process. Because brackish water is hostile to the growth of most terrestrial plant species, without appropriate management it is damaging to the environment (see article on
shrimp farms).
Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of
salt per
litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand (ppt or ‰). Thus,
brackish covers a range of
salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition. It is characteristic of many brackish surface waters that their salinity can vary considerably over space and/or time.
Brackish water habitats
Estuaries
A brackish water fish: Monodactylus argenteus
Brackish water condition commonly occurs when fresh water meets sea water. In fact, the most extensive brackish water habitats worldwide are
estuaries, where a river meets the sea.
The River Thames flowing through
London is a classic river estuary. The town of
Teddington a few miles west of London marks the boundary between the tidal and non-tidal parts of the Thames, although it is still considered a freshwater river about as far east as
Battersea insofar as the average salinity is very low and the fish fauna consists predominantly of freshwater species such as
roach,
dace,
carp,
perch, and
pike. The
Thames Estuary becomes brackish between Battersea and
Gravesend, and the diversity of freshwater fish species present is smaller, primarily roach and dace,
euryhaline marine species such as
flounder,
European seabass,
mullet, and
smelt become much more common. Further east, the salinity increases and the freshwater fish species are completely replaced by euryhaline marine ones, until the river reaches Gravesend, at which point conditions become fully marine and the fish fauna resembles that of the adjacent
North Sea and includes both euryhaline and
stenohaline marine species. A similar pattern of replacement can be observed with the aquatic plants and invertebrates living in the river.
This type of
ecological succession from a freshwater to marine
ecosystem is typical of river estuaries. River estuaries form important staging points during the migration of
anadromous and catadromus fish species, such as
salmon and
eels, giving them time to form social groups and to adjust to the changes in salinity. Salmon are anadromous, meaning they live in the sea but ascend rivers to spawn; eels are catadromous, living in rivers and streams, but returning to the sea to breed. Besides the species that migrate through estuaries, there are many other fish that use them as "nursery grounds" for spawning or as places young fish can feed and grow before moving elsewhere.
Herring and
plaice are two commercially important species that use the Thames Estuary for this purpose.
Estuaries are also commonly used as fishing grounds, and as places for fish farming or ranching. For example,
Atlantic salmon farms are often located in estuaries, although this has caused controversy, because in doing so, fish farmers expose migrating wild fish to large numbers of external
parasites such as
sea lice that escape from the pens the farmed fish are kept in.
Mangroves
Another important brackish water habitat is the
mangrove swamp or
mangal. Many, though not all, mangrove swamps fringe estuaries and lagoons where the salinity changes with each tide. Among the most specialised residents of mangrove forests are
mudskippers, fish that forage for food on land, and
archer fish, perch-like fish that "spit" at insects and other small animals living in the trees, knocking them into the water where they can be eaten. Like estuaries, mangrove swamps are extremely important breeding grounds for many fish, with species such as
snappers,
halfbeaks, and
tarpon spawning or maturing among them. Besides fish, numerous other animals use mangroves, including such specialists as the
Saltwater crocodile,
American crocodile,
proboscis monkey,
diamondback terrapin, and the
Crab-eating Frog,
Fejervarya cancrivora (formerly
Rana cancrivora).
Although often plagued with
mosquitoes and other insects that make them unpleasant places to visit, mangrove swamps are very important buffer zones between land and sea, and are a natural defense against hurricane and tsunami damage in particular..
The
Sundarbans and
Pichavaram are two of the large mangrove forests in the world, both on the coast of the
Bay of Bengal.
Brackish seas and lakes
Some seas and lakes are brackish. The
Baltic Sea is a brackish sea adjoining the
North Sea. Originally the
confluence of two major river systems prior to the
Pleistocene, since that it has been flooded by the North Sea but still receives so much freshwater from the adjacent lands that the water is brackish. Because the salt water coming in from the sea is denser than freshwater, the water in the Baltic is stratified, with salt water at the bottom and freshwater at the top. Limited mixing occurs because of the lack of tides and storms, with the result that the fish fauna at the surface is freshwater in composition while that lower down is more marine.
Cod are an example of a species only found in deep water in the Baltic, while pike are confined to the less saline surface waters.
The
Caspian Sea is the world's largest lake and contains brackish water with a salinity about one-third that of normal seawater. The Caspian is famous for its peculiar animal fauna, including one of the few non-marine seals (the
Caspian seal) and the great
sturgeons, a major source of
caviar.
In the
Black Sea the surface water is brackish with an average salinity of about 17-18 parts per thousand compared to 30 to 40 for the oceans. The deep,
anoxic water of the Black Sea originates from warm, salty water of the
Mediterranean.
Brackish marsh
A
brackish marsh may occur where a freshwater flow enters a salt marsh.
Notable brackish bodies of water (by type, in alphabetical order)
Brackish seas- Baltic Sea (the world’s largest pool of brackish water)
Brackish water lakesLochs (Scottish)Coastal lagoons, marshes, and deltasEstuaries
