The Changes in Contents of Salt Marsh Species and the Importance of Edaphic Physicochemical Factors

Abstract

The changes in nutrient contents of some halophytic plants which occured in a salt marsh located in the vicinity of Bafra town, on the north coast of Turkey during the growing season were investigated. Contents of SO<inf>4</inf>, Cl, Na, K, Ca and Mg changed during the growing season in most species. High correlation coefficients were obtained between plant ion and soil ion contents. It has been found that the most prevalent ion was Na in the plant and soil samples. It was also shown that species diversity was quite low in the study area, and species diversity was highly correlated with SO<inf>4</inf>/Cl ratio, electrical conductivity and pH.