RDE588 Annual saltmarsh nutrient survey 2024-2025

As part of Year 3 of the marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme (mNCEA), the Environment Agency are running a project called the Land-Sea Interface (LSI), which aims to improve the evidence of ecosystem services in key estuarine and coastal habitats, such as saltmarsh, seagrass and shellfish beds.

This project aims to build on the work that was complete last year (2023-2024), which developed a method, in partnership with the University of Bangor, to measure saltmarsh denitrification rates. This year's project will provide more evidence to help us understand the rate nitrogen (N) is removed from the water column and sediment by saltmarsh habitats through denitrification. Specifically, we want this study to show to measure any temporal change and to investigate how seasonality influences saltmarsh ability to process nutrients.

The deliverables of this project (and of the 2023-24 one) will be used to fill evidence gaps in the updated Combined Phytoplankton-Macroalgae (CPM) model and improve our natural capital assessments of natural and restored saltmarsh habitats. It was recommended by Cefas that the CPM model would benefit from seasonal data on saltmarshes, to understand how seasonal changes influence the ability of a marsh to process nutrients.