Solar salterns – salt-making areas and natural habitats

In recent decades, solar salterns in Europe have become protected natural areas. Long-term human activity has created a typical saltern ecosystem, providing habitats for numerous plant and animal species. We describe traditional salt-making using the example of the Sečovlje salterns in Slovenia, focusing on salt crystallisation areas during the 2024 salt season. The role of the petola microbial mat as both salt-making heritage and a natural feature is illustrated by examples from Croatia (Pag, Nin, Ston), Italy (Cervia), and France (Aigues-Mortes, Guérande). We examined the heritagisation of solar salt-making using the examples of the salterns in Aigues-Mortes (France) and Sečovlje (Slovenia). Saltworkers and salt production as an economic activity play a key role in preserving the saltscape. Morske soline – prostor solinarstva in naravni habitat Območja morskih solin postajajo v Evropi v zadnjih desetletjih zavarovana območja narave. Zaradi dolgotrajnega delovanja človeka je nastal tipičen solinski ekosistem, ki je območje habitatov številnih rastlinskih in živalskih vrst. Tradicionalno morsko solinarstvo smo orisali na primeru Sečoveljskih solin v Sloveniji, s poudarkom na območjih kristalizacije soli v solni sezoni 2024. Vlogo petole kot solinarske dediščine in narave orišejo primeri iz Hrvaške (Pag, Nin, Ston), Italije (Cervia) in Francije (Aigues-Mortes, Guérande). Dediščinjenje morskega solinarstva pa smo preučili na primeru solin v Aigues-Mortes (Francija) in Sečoveljskih solin (Slovenija). Pri ohranjanju solinarske pokrajine imajo ključno vlogo solinarji ter solinarstvo kot gospodarska dejavnost.