People treasure the shorelines, bays, and beaches of estuaries for fishing, wildlife viewing, boating, hunting, and many other leisure and job-related activities. The river with the greatest water quality problems in Indiana is the Grand Calumet in Lake County. In collaboration with academic, governmental and private research institutions, the HBOI Aquaculture Division has designed and implemeted culture systems for a variety of marine animals and plants in a 15 acre complex adjacent to the Indian River Estuary. The facilities include several laboratories, hatcheries, nurseries, covered raceways, a 20,000 gallon environmentally controlled recirculation system and a total capacity of over 1,000,000 liters of saltwater culture systems. Cordgrass' secret to success in the low marsh is its immunity to the harsh salt water that floods its roots twice daily.
Salt is excreted through special glands, but Spartina has another defense from salt damage.
The plant concentrates salt in its cells to levels higher than that of the surrounding seawater. As saltwater passes by, only the water is brought into the cell by osmosis, and the salt is left outside. No other species can survive these salty conditions as aptly as S. alterniflora, so it has little competition to deal with. Cordgrass can grow up to 3 meters in some areas of the marsh, but may only reach heights of less than 0.25 meters in others. S. alterniflora has a round, hollow, robust stem and large leaves that can be as wide as 1.3 centimeters.