In January and February 2013 the CBESS Team spent two weeks in the Essex Marshes and Morecambe Bay, respectively (the first of two field campaigns). Rain, hail, ice, snow and wind were overcome in order to collect enough samples at four spatial scales to quantify the biodiversity and related ecosystem services in two very different bio-geographical regions.
Approximately 9,500 samples were successfully collected in January and February! The team is now in the process of sorting, testing and analysing the data collected.
Three members of the CBESS team; University of Cambridge, University of Essex and University of St Andrews have given us a taste of what’s to come.
The Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (University of Cambridge)is monitoring the sea defence function of salt marshes in Morecambe Bay and Essex.
The University of Essex is providing a vital role in the CBESS project by characterising the microbes present in 264 areas of salt marsh and mudflat, in Essex and Morecambe.
The University of St Andrews measuring some of the first long-term salt marsh carbon exchange measurements.