Scientists are establishing the first network of greenhouse gas monitoring stations on saltmarshes around the UK coast to support national efforts to mitigate climate change.
The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) has installed two flux systems in the Ribble Estuary with others to follow at Essex Marshes and The Wash in East Anglia over the coming months. The flux towers will measure how much carbon dioxide gas is captured from the atmosphere and stored as carbon within the saltmarsh ecosystem, which will provide evidence to help unlock investment in restoration schemes of these important coastal wetlands.
Some 85% of UK saltmarshes have been lost since the mid-19th century as land has been reclaimed from the sea for agriculture, development or coastal flood defences, degraded through pollution or eroded by rising sea levels. When the marsh destabilises and sediment begins to erode, greenhouse gases that are produced within the soil can be released to the atmosphere at enhanced rates.
Read More: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Flux tower installed in the Ribble Estuary. (Photo Credit: Dafydd Crabtree)