The role of Pacific coast marsh plants as vectors in the flux of trace metals was studied in natural and perturbated situations. The flux of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Sr, and Zn were studied in natural stands of Carex lyngbyei, Distichlis spicata, Potentilla pacifica, and Salicornia virginica. Seasonal fluxes of trace metals into the shoots of the living plants were measured as was their transfer to the dead plant community through mortality. Disappearance from the latter community (through fragmentation, leaching and excretion) was calculated. Seasonal data were summed to produce annual input-output budgets. Copper was the only metal accumulated from contaminated soils in the situations tested.