Ballona Wetlands
Intertidal Mudflats

This habitat is one of the most important found in the Ballona Wetlands.  It consists of unvegetated, gently sloping mud substrate that is periodically covered during high tides and uncovered at low tides.

The typical salt marsh vegetation cannot survive at this low elevation, but a variety of marine algae do, such as the filamentous green algae in the above image.

Marine invertebrates abound here.  Many of these are detritivores, feeding on the dead organic matter present, while others are deposit feeders, gleaning food from the mud substrate.

It is this habitat that many of the shorebirds forage, probing the mud or pecking at its surface for mollusks, annelid worms and arthropods.

Other plant communities in the Ballona Wetlands:
Subtidal Areas
Coastal Salt Marsh
Coastal Strand
Coastal Sage Scrub
Riparian and Freshwater Marsh

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