Wadering
Ok, so maybe this is tad out of date, but everything has been more than a bit hectic!
I'll start with the project, which I've now started working on in earnest, but am being more than a bit disorganised about. My project is looking at Managed Realignment sites, which are areas of formerly reclaimed land which are being allowed to flood with seawater again. The idea is that saltmarsh is created, which dissipates some of the wave energy, and takes pressure off sea defences elsewhere along the coast. There haven't been many studies done, although there are lots of claims of the ecological benefits of doing this, and it can actually be used to create saltmarsh to mitigate for areas lost elswhere through development etc. The Government actually has a legal obligation to recreate certain habitats if they are lost through development, saltmarsh being one such.
So basically I'm doing lots of sunrise to sunset bird counts, identifying wader and waterbird species and qualifying what they're doing every half hour. Whilst doing this in Exeter in December, I got bitten by an unidentified insect, the bite got very infected and I ended up being quite ill. It happened just before the Kenya trip, so nearly didn't get to go.
The second part of the project involves doing transects to sample marine invertebrates, and then looking at the relationship between the invertebrate species found and the bird species found, and comparing both of those to unmanaged areas nearby, such as open estuary. I really like the idea of returning areas to their natural state, and trying to make up for some of the areas that have been lost. Essex has lost something like 90% of its saltmarsh, mainly through reclamation, and re-flooding the low grade agricultural land could be great for birds and for helping to cope with rising sea levels.
I'll start with the project, which I've now started working on in earnest, but am being more than a bit disorganised about. My project is looking at Managed Realignment sites, which are areas of formerly reclaimed land which are being allowed to flood with seawater again. The idea is that saltmarsh is created, which dissipates some of the wave energy, and takes pressure off sea defences elsewhere along the coast. There haven't been many studies done, although there are lots of claims of the ecological benefits of doing this, and it can actually be used to create saltmarsh to mitigate for areas lost elswhere through development etc. The Government actually has a legal obligation to recreate certain habitats if they are lost through development, saltmarsh being one such.
So basically I'm doing lots of sunrise to sunset bird counts, identifying wader and waterbird species and qualifying what they're doing every half hour. Whilst doing this in Exeter in December, I got bitten by an unidentified insect, the bite got very infected and I ended up being quite ill. It happened just before the Kenya trip, so nearly didn't get to go.
The second part of the project involves doing transects to sample marine invertebrates, and then looking at the relationship between the invertebrate species found and the bird species found, and comparing both of those to unmanaged areas nearby, such as open estuary. I really like the idea of returning areas to their natural state, and trying to make up for some of the areas that have been lost. Essex has lost something like 90% of its saltmarsh, mainly through reclamation, and re-flooding the low grade agricultural land could be great for birds and for helping to cope with rising sea levels.
posted by Simone Webber at 5:08 am
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