Conserving and restoring marine ecosystems
Seagrass and saltmarshes play a key role in supporting marine ecosystems. With the coast on our doorstep, the University is researching ways to conserve and restore these vital habitats.
We aim to pilot a project to restore seagrass and saltmarsh in the southeast of Scotland, using a comprehensive, whole-ecosystem approach to the study of these coastal areas. We are actively exploring opportunities for collaboration and partnership in this space.
Why are seagrass and saltmarsh habitats important?
Seagrass and saltmarsh provide a myriad of benefits to humans and animals; from recreational activities like bird-watching, photography and fishing to improving water quality and flood defences. The long grasses on saltmarshes provide shelter and food for migrating and wintering birds such as geese and the seagrasses give a nursing home for fish, crabs, and oysters.
Seagrass and saltmarsh are highly effective carbon sinks, sequestering and storing Blue Carbon (carbon captured by the world's ocean and coastal ecosystems) in ocean sediments and plant matter.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), seagrass accounts for 10-18% of total ocean carbon storage despite covering less than 0.1% of the seafloor.
Planting hope: How seagrass can tackle climate change [external]
Drivers of loss
Unfortunately, we have lost large areas of seagrass and saltmarsh in Europe and globally due to conversion of coastal strips into agricultural land, wasting disease, harmful methods of fishing and anchoring and deteriorating water quality.
The impacts of climate change, such as higher water temperatures, stronger waves and currents, and storms and floods are and will become an additional strain on coastal habitats and the humans and wildlife it supports.
Seagrass
Seagrass is one of the very few flowering plants that live in marine waters. It occurs everywhere on Earth except for Antarctica and appears as either fragmented patches or as dense underwater meadows. There are various different species of seagrass and they can be found either constantly underwater (subtidal) or regularly submerged by the tide (intertidal).
The two most prominent species in Scotland are zostera marina (common eelgrass) and zostera noltii (dwarf eelgrass). In Scotland they are protected as a Priority Marine Feature.
Saltmarsh
Saltmarsh is a habitat that forms in sheltered estuaries through the accumulation of sediments and the growth of special types of vegetation that can flourish in salty environments.
Saltmarsh plants grow on mudflats and raise the marsh above the water level while small channels of water between them still get regularly flooded by the tides. Saltmarsh vegetation is varied and includes grasses, flowers, shrubs, and bushes. Species commonly found in Scottish saltmarshes include Salicornia spp. (glassworts), Puccinellia maritima (common saltmarsh grass) and Aster tripolium (sea aster).
Both habitats help filter water and thereby improve water quality, taking out an excess of nutrients. Ultimately, they also stabilise the coastline and function as a buffer against flooding and erosion and they sequester carbon dioxide, which makes them an important ally in the fight against climate change.
Our reach to the shore as a nature positive University
As part of our commitment to become a nature positive University we will leverage our research to conserve and restore nature beyond our campus.
A cross-disciplinary group of researchers has formed the Coastal Restoration Working Group. The Working Group aims to bring together students, staff and researchers who are working on coastal habitat restoration to share research findings, identify potential partnerships and to promote best practice.
Engagement with coastal restoration projects
In October 2022, SRS organised a field trip for students of the MSc Marine Systems and Policies to visit the Restoration Forth Project, an active seagrass restoration site in the Firth of Forth. The students studied restoration techniques, seagrass ecology, and ways to engage with the local community.
The Restoration Forth Project [external]
In December 2023 Coastal Restoration Project Manager, Kim Vender, met with researchers and practitioners involved in the Green Shores Project in St Andrews. The Green Shores Project is working to restoring the saltmarshes of the Eden Estuary to its former glory.
See what the Green Shores Project is doing [external]
Green Shores post about the trip [external]
Working with the University of St Andrews, we are in the planning stages of integrating seagrass into an existing saltmarsh restoration project in the Eden Estuary. Our next steps for 2024 are to conduct a study of habitat suitability in Scotland’s Southeast and to create baselines of carbon dioxide and biodiversity at the Eden Estuary.
If successful, the trialled methods could be used to scale up our efforts to other suitable sites in Scotland.
Get in touch
Are you a student, member of staff or researcher interested in the restoration of coastal ecosystems? Or a business that might benefit from research into coastal habitat management?
We welcome expressions of interest from volunteers and organisations interested in partnership opportunities.