During 1992 and 1993, we monitored mangrove forest structure and monitored fish, invertebrate, and avian biodiversity levels within the healthy, dying, and dead mangrove forests of the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta estuary. Forest structure surveys demonstrated the tremendous ecological impact of the hypersalinization of the western half of the Ciénaga Grande ecosystem. Mangrove tree mortality is almost complete within much of the western side of the Ciénaga. Forest floor invertebrate fauna, mangrove prop root communities, and fish assemblages are dramatically different between the eastern, central, and western sides of the Ciénaga. Avian surveys demonstrated smaller, yet distinct differences between healthy and dead forest bird assemblages. Avian mobility and the use of dead trees as roosts and nesting sites may account for the presence of many birds in the dead forests of the Ciénaga Grande.
