Salt marshes as a factor in the agricuture of northeastern North America

This paper is an amalgam of work done over the last two decades by historians, geologists, economists, historic and cultural geographers. Our study is of salt marshes and how they form an ecological part of coastal farming in the northeastern part of the North American continent. We are interested in how salt marshes, and adjacent structures such as dykes can be used to provide dating accuracy for tectonic land changes in the near past, how salt marshes can help understanding in the crucial problems related to sea level changes over long time periods, and how they also may be useful in understanding such matters as air pollution over time. This study is also useful in determining the extent of cultivation in near-by areas, both by European settlers, and aboriginal residents and, of course, how salt marshes may be used to extend our knowledge of basic subsistence agriculture in the past 350 years in North America, and before that in England and in the Low Countries. -Authors