Salt marshes in Tasmania: distribution, community composition and conservation

Abstract

Salt marshes consist of vegetation dominated by higher plants and subject to regular inundation by the sea. They occur worldwide on low energy coasts, usually in the shelter of estuaries and open lagoons. Salt marshes have proved to be fertile areas for scientific research and are known to be of considerable importance in both marine and terrestrial food chains. For Europe and North America there is a plethora of plant geographical and ecological work on salt marsh. The marshes of Australia are less well known apart from the Sydney region. World reviews of the ecology and plant geography of salt marsh can be found in Ranwell (1972) and Chapman (1977), the latter reference providing a general description and a bibliography of Australian salt marshes. Tasmanian salt marsh vegetation is poorly known. This paper documents the distribution of salt marsh and salt marsh plant species in Tasmania; defines and describes the distribution and environmental relationships of structural and floristic salt marsh communities; assesses the conservation status of salt marsh communities and species; and discusses the physical and cultural factors which may lead to a dimunition in the area and species richness of Tasmanian salt marsh. The documentation and analysis included in this paper provide the first accurate overall picture of the general features of the ecology and plant geography of Tasmanian salt marshes. As such, it provides information that should be valuable in land use planning and management in the coastal regions of the State, as well as providing comparative data for simliar plant communities in other places.