By: Cathy Jacobs, PH.D, Dept. of Biology
California State University Dominguez Hills

Coastal Salt Marsh

Malibu Lagoon

Rushes Malibu Lagoon

This habitat is characterized by flooding of low-lying areas at high tide by the sea. Organisms in this habitat must be able to withstand large fluctuations in salinity. Salt marshes are usually areas of high productivity, and are very important as nurseries for many species of marine fishes, as well as important feeding grounds for birds, and are home to a wide variety of invertebrates. The vegetation occurs in bands out into the marsh, based on the tolerance of plants for submergence and salinity. Cord grass, Spartine foliosa, is the emergent plant

Saltbush Ballona Wetlands

which is found furthest out in the marsh. Its stems are hollow, so oxygen can reach its roots, and it has salt glands to excrete excess salt. It makes a great contributionto salt marsh productivity by dying, and decomposing, adding energy and nutrients to the decomposer community. Its root systems trap detritus, and decomposing plants contribute to it. Further in are the pickleweeds(Salicornia sp.), which are covered only by the highest tides. These plants store salt in their tissues, so they can continue to move water into their tissues even though they are rooted in saline soil. With the pickleweeds are salt grass, Distichlis spicata, and sea blite, Suaeda californica. Snails, filter-feeding polychaete worms, and crabs are present, as well as birds such as the clapper rail, marsh wren, savannah sparrow, many herons and egrets, and raptors such as northern harriers and osprey. Many migratory shorebirds feed on the mudflats that are often exposed when the tide goes out in salt marshes.