The conservation of British inland salt marshes

Abstract

British inland salt marshes are restricted to small areas around brine springs and in the vicinity of salt works. They are poor in species compared with coastal marshes. Brine spring habitats have been destroyed by the salt industry and by urban development, and are now extremely rare. The salt industry, however, gives rise to soils contaminated by brine through spillage and by causing subsidence. Subsidence sites are more extensive than either spillage or brine spring sites and provide the major inland saline sites in Britain. Although recent in origin and colonised by few halophyte species, these areas are valuable for comparative ecological experimentation and are attractive to birds on migration. The conservation of the more important sites is discussed and attention is also drawn to the loss of brine spring habitats in other European countries.