Nebraska's Saline Wetlands
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NEBRASKAland Magazine
LIMESTONE
STREAM-DEPOSITED CLAY, SILT, SAND, AND GRAVEL
SALINE MEADOW SALT FLAT SALINE MARSH PRAIRIE
Salt Crust on
Bare Soil
Water Table
Seep
Foxtail
Barley
Spearscale
Marsh Elder
Saltwort
Sea Blite
Sago
Pondweed
Saltwater
Bulrush
Upward
Saline
Groundwater
Flow
ILLUSTRATION
BY
TIM
REIGERT
salt concentrations. The portion of the salt flat nearest
the center of the wetland is the wettest, keeping salts
in solution, and salinity levels moderately high. Here,
saltwort, a state listed endangered plant found nowhere
else in Nebraska, thrives. Beyond the wetter, inner ring of
the salt flat, evaporation frequently dries the soil surface,
concentrating salt near the surface. Sea blite occupies
this slightly drier, central portion of the salt flat zone.
Inland saltgrass, dwarfed in stature and sparsely spaced,
is often the only plant which can survive on the dry, salt-
encrusted outer portion of the salt flat.
The greatest diversity of plants on a saline wetland is
found in the saline meadow, a transition zone between
the salt flat and prairie at the outer edge of the wetland.
Closest to the salt flat, foxtail barley and marsh elder
dominate, but many other species also grow here,
including spearscale and saltmarsh aster. In the saline
marsh, sago pondweed and saltwater bulrush thrive.
The plants of a saline wetland are seldom arranged
in so orderly a manner. The boundaries between zones
where one species or another is favored are constantly
changing as soil saturation and salinity fluctuate, and a
mixing and merging of plant species occurs. Frequently,
the most consistently wet portion of a saline wetland
is not at the center, but below seeps emerging from
the base of hills at the edge of the floodplain, as
illustrated here. Salt flats on large basins may have small
depressions or "pans" which periodically hold water,
where plants most tolerant of high salinity and saturated
soils grow.
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