Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal salt marsh

These coastal salt marshes include various Mediterranean and western Black Sea plant communities of the classes Juncetea maritimi and Salicornietea fruticosae which are under influence of saline sea water. On the thermo-Atlantic coast along the SW Iberian Peninsula tidal flooding is relevant and determines communities zonation. The northern limit of this habitat along the Atlantic shores is the Mondego river mouth in Central Portugal. In the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, soil texture, salinity and water content govern the main gradients. The vegetation is dominated by perennial and shrubby halophytes growing on the extreme upper shores of low sedimentary coasts, sheltered from the waves mechanical action.

The habitat can develop on a variety of sandy and muddy sediments, but in coasts with coarse sands beach communities develop (habitat B1.1b). The species composition is diverse, depending on the geographical range and the climatic conditions. On the Black Sea coast this habitat is presented mainly by mono-dominant communities of the tall rushes Juncus maritimus and/or Juncus acutus. Besides, shrub communities of Halocnemum stobilaceum occur in the Northern Black Sea coast of Romania and Ukraine. However, in the Danube Delta and on the marine sandbanks within the Razelm-Sinoe lagoon complex (known as the southern Delta), behind sand dunes or around saline ponds and lakes, salt marshes occur with vegetation more similar to continental inland salt marshes, for example with Salicornia perennans, Puccinellia limosa and Juncus gerardi.

In the Mediterranean the habitat is much more diverse, especially in the Iberian Peninsula and in southern Italy (Sicily, Apulia, Calabria), where soil salinity levels reach the highest values due to extreme climatic summer drought. In these parts of the range the habitat forms a mosaic of tall rushes mixed with shrubby and other herbaceous species, often with succulent stems and/or leaves, forming halophytic shrublads and thickets (alliances Arthrocnemion glauci and Salicornion fruticosae).In soils with brackish water beds of reed and other tall helophytes grow. Annual halophytic species (Salicornia sp., Suaeda sp) may exist in small spots occupying depressions between the communities of tall rush, shrub and thickets (class Thero-Salicornietea), while Frankenia spp. and Sagina maritima (class Saginetea maritimae) grow on the higher parts of sandy shores. The habitat further includes Mediterranean halo-psammophile meadows (Plantaginion crassifoliae), humid halophilous moors with the shrubby stratum dominated by Artemisia coerulescens (Agropyro-Artemision coerulescentis), halo-nitrophilous shrubby seablite thickets of Suaeda vera rarely inundated (Suaedion verae), shrub communities of Limoniastrum sp. (Limonastrion monopetali, Limonion algarvenso-lanceolatii), and communities in the Dalmatian coastal region, in somewhat drier habitats with less salt, which are not directly affected by waves and tides (Agropyro-Plantaginion maritime). On intertidal muds, cord grasses (Spartinion maritimae) may grow, but these are relatively rare in the Mediterranean and more common along the Atlantic coast.

Synthesis of Red List assessment

Confidence in the assessment

Pressures and threats