{{Short description|Ecological succession in a saline environment}} {{More references|date=December 2009}} thumb|250px|right|A salt marsh A '''halosere''' is an ecological succession in saline water environments. An example of a halosere is a salt marsh.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coastal Systems - Halosere Succession |url=https://www.tutor2u.net/geography/reference/halosere-succession |access-date=2024-08-31 |website=www.tutor2u.net |language=en}}</ref>
In a river estuary, large amounts of silt are deposited by the ebbing tides, as well as inflowing rivers.
==Plants in halosere== [[File:Great Salt Lake by Sentinel-2.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The Great Salt Lake in Utah, satellite photo from August 2018 after years of drought]]
The earliest plant colonizers are algae and zostera, which can tolerate submergence by the tide for most of the 12 hour cycle and which trap mud, causing it to accumulate.
Two other colonizer plants are ''Salicornia'', and ''Spartina'', which are both halophytes. Halophytes are plants that can tolerate saline conditions and they grow on the intertidal mudflats with a maximum of four hours' exposure to air every 12 hours.{{citation needed||date=May 2023}} On a large scale halophytes have colonized the halosere on the banks of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Physiological Processes in Plant Ecology: Toward a Synthesis with Atriplex | author1= C.B. Osmond | author2= O. Björkman | author3= D.J. Anderson |publisher= Springer Berlin Heidelberg |year=2012 |isbn= 9783642676376 | pages=119}}</ref> Halosere vegetation can also be found in the salt marshes of the Wadden Sea islands and the zone towards the dunes.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Terrestrial Coastal Ecosystems in Germany and Climate Change | editor1= Dietrich Mossakowski | editor2= Ulrich Irmler |publisher= Springer International Publishing |year=2023 |isbn= 9783031125393 | pages=96}}</ref>
===River estuaries=== In a river estuary, large amount of silt are depositing. Halosere in river estuaries consist of mudflats and the so called sward zone. Halosere sward zones can be found in the Llanrhidian marsh on the Gower Peninsula.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Geography: An Integrated Approach | author1= David Waugh |publisher= Nelson |year=2000 |isbn= 9780174447061 | pages=291}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Wetlands}} * Seral community
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Wetlands}}
Category:Ecological succession Category:Wetlands Category:Estuaries