9. Die Pletera

La Pletera forms a typical Mediterranean coastal ecosystem, between Els Griells and the mouth of the Ter. It has mobile littoral dunes and a dune cordon. Behind it there are the saltwater spaces of marshes and ponds.

Dunes, marshes and salt pools are scarce in the Mediterranean. Human occupation of the coastline has gradually made them disappear from the landscape, now making these ecosystems uncommon.

Sand and salt are the principal elements of the dunes. The species that live there have learned to adapt to severe environmental conditions. The soil is mobile, loose, it has no nutrients and it does not retain rainwater. These conditions make it hard for plants to take root.

The marshes and salt pools lie directly behind the dunes. They are shallow, the water evaporates easily, and they are very salty. The plants that live there have adapted to these conditions by expelling or accumulating the salt.

On well-formed dunes there grows marram grass, a species very well adapted to sand that helps to fix the dunes. Salicornias or glassworts spread across the marshes, like samphire and glaucous glasswort.

In the dunes, marshes and ponds we find a plant called French tamarisk, along with two very special species of fauna: the Kentish plover, a wading bird that nests in the dune zones, and the Spanish toothcarp, a small autochthonous fish that lives in the salt pools.

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