SIMILARITY OF ZONATION WITHIN CALIFORNIAN BAJA CALIFORNIAN AND MEDITERRANEAN SALT MARSHES

A phytosociological analysis based on the Braun-Blanquet method, suppo rted by numerical analyses, was used to compare the salt marshes of th e North American Pacific coast and the Iberian Peninsula found in area s of Mediterranean climate. The results show a strong floristic, physi ognomic, ecological and zonal similarity between the detected plant as sociations; these similarities allow us to describe a common zonal pat tern that can be considered a Mediterranean model of zonation. Some zo nal, structural, taxonomic, physiognomic and floristic vicariation bet ween Pacific and Mediterranean halophilous plants and associations are shown.