ESTUDIOS ECOLÓGICOS DE LOS HUMEDALES COSTEROS DEL SUDESTE ESPAÑOL. l. INVENTARIO Y TIPIFICACIÓN

This is the first of two articles dealing with the ecological characteristics of coastal wetlands of SE Spain. It includes an inventory of standing waters located in the coastal fringe between Alicante city and the westem limit of Murcia Region, a review of published and unpublished information on their ecological characteristics, and a tipology of these wetlands based on physical and biotic variables. Excluding the strictly artificial ones, 16 wetlands have been inventoried, belonging to nine types. The tipology obtained is compared with other wetland classification schemes, the contribution of the different variabies to the tipification being also discussed.