Barnacles, sponges, coral and oysters colonize the roots and are fed upon by the fish, clams, shrimp, crabs and lobsters that thrive in the water amongst the tangled mass of mangrove roots. The bottom of the estuary is an organic soup, a thick mixture of silt, decaying vegetable matter and bird guano that supports a wide spectrum of microorganisms which play an important and little-understood role in the complex realm of mangrove ecology.
