Mudflats are relatively flat, muddy regions found in intertidal areas. As the material that forms the mudflats is deposited by the tides or rivers, they are found in sheltered areas such as bays and estuaries.
Mudflats are typically important regions for wildlife, supporting a large population, although levels of biodiversity are not particularly high. They are often of particular importance to migratory birds.
The maintenance of mudflats are important in preventing coastal erosion. However, mudflats worldwide are under threat from predicted sealevel rises, land claims for development, dredging due to shipping purposes, and pollution.
Mud deposition is typically in protected, low energy environments such as estuaries and lagoons that also have an influx of dominantly fine-grained sediments.
The mud banks of Surinam resemble linear sand ridges on the shelf of the eastern United States in shape, oblique orientation to the coastline, and orientation with respect to dominant direction of transport processes.
The middle part of the intertidal flat is covered for about half of the tidal cycle and the nearly equal periods of suspension and bedload transport generate thin, parallel layered beds of alternating sand and mud with a tendency to coarsen in a seaward direction.
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