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Marine Protected Areas
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Features catalogue
Broad habitats
Coastal saltmarshes and saline reedbeds
Sheltered, muddy areas at the top of the shore, which are occasionally inundated by seawater, where salt-tolerant flowering plants grow.
Coastal saltmarsh -
© JNCC/David Conner
Saltmarshes link the land and sea, and they are found above the muddy shores of sheltered estuaries and inlets. The flowering plants that comprise them are very specialised, as only a few types can tolerate the salty conditions. Saltmarshes may die back in winter, as the temperature falls and storms batter the shore, but they will expand again during the summer.
Saltmarshes form a natural coastal defence because they trap and stabilise sediments and also dampen the effects of waves. They are important for wading birds and wildfowl, which take refuge there when the tide covers the mudflats in which they feed. The life on and beneath the saltmarsh plants includes an abundance of marine worms, shrimp-like creatures and tiny snails.
Reedbeds are also found where the shore meets dry land, and grow in salty lagoons. They are again important for birdlife and are home to nationally rare species including bitterns, cranes, reed warblers and bearded tits. Water voles eat young reed shoots as their main diet for much of the year.
Saltmarshes and reedbeds are at risk from land reclamation or drainage for agriculture or coastal development, although large scale reclamation is now rare. Saltmarshes may also be ‘squeezed out’ in areas where their landward retreat in response to erosion or rising sea levels is prevented by the presence of roads or buildings. They are also damaged by grazing, encroachment of hardy land plants, pollution and other changes to water quality.
Brief description of European distribution
In Britain, saltmarshes and reedbeds are found around the coast in estuaries and other sheltered marine inlets. Saltmarshes are found from the Arctic region to southern Europe and beyond.
Conservation status / need
Ramsar Convention
Annex I of the Habitats Directive
Protected under the Birds Directive
An important feature in estuary Sites of Special Scientific Interest, under the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
UKBAP Priority Habitat
Further information sources
Saltmarsh
(JNCC)
Saltmarsh Management Manual (DEFRA)
UKBAP Priority Species and Habitats (UKBAP)
Pioneer saltmarsh (MarLIN)
Phragmites australis swamp and reed beds (MarLIN)
Phragmites australis swamp and reed beds (JNCC)
Interesting fact
Reed has been used for thatching for many centuries, probably since man first settled near wetlands. In the past, parishes containing wetlands often held some of it as common land from which villagers could cut reed for their houses.
