Physical Features

1. Soil
   1. Moisture- wet to saturated
   2. Texture-crunchy, gooey, icky, slippery sticky.
      1. lots of clay
   3. Color -white, crusty salt on surface, green black below the surface..
      1. some ridges of crushed white shells

          

2. Height
   1. Slightly above seal level
   2. Becomes flooded during high tide
   3. Many small pools
      1. pH varies depending on the pond. One pond next to a shelf of shells had a pH of 10, another pond a pH of 8.
      2. Salinity. On April 20 the salinity of a pond with much salt grass was about 2.8%, slightly less than ocean water. After a very warm day the salinity increased to 3.2% about the same as ocean water.
      3. As expected, during warm afternoon, pond temperatures were between 5 and 10 degrees C warmer than SF Bay.
      4. In a pond which contained a submerged stand of grass, (perhaps cord grass), dissolved oxygen was almost 20% higher in comparison to the cooler bay water.

Biotic Features

1. On Dry Land
   1. Plants: pickle weed and other halophytes such as gum plant, jaumea salt grass.
   2. Animals: a dead harbor seal, weird flies, gnats. Birds: 3 snowy plovers.

       

2. Pond Life
   1. Plants: grasses and algae.
   2. Animals: rain fish, minnows. A few sandpipers were spotted near the pools during high tide.