The CBESS team met in York at the start of January for two days to discuss the best way to incorporate scale and context into our data analysis and how to best approach up-scaling biodiversity and ecosystem services and finally the creation of novel tools for Ecosystem Service Provisioning.
This was a big ask and to kick things off properly and fuel us through two days of scientific debate and discussion we paid a visit to Akbars.
The field campaigns in 2013 generated vast amounts of data, the science meeting provided the theme leaders Dr Martin Solan (Theme 1), Prof Mark Emmerson (Theme 2) and Dr Jasmin Godbold (Theme 3) an opportunity to discuss and brainstorm the data with the rest of the team. Looking at all the sites across all the scales patterns and relationships began to emerge and it became apparent that we needed a dedicated data workshop.
CBESS is an interdisciplinary consortia drawing members from economics, policy, social sciences, molecular and coastal ecology, biodiversity and ecosystem function, avian biodiversity and ecology, tidal wetland sedimentation and accretion, carbon fluxes to name but a few. Effective communication between these various disciplines where terminology can often differ is key, the science meeting provided an ideal opportunity for the CBESS team to discuss how best to approach the synthesis of non-monetary valuation with ecological data and how this relates to biodiversity ecosystem services.
Prof Mike Burrows (Theme 4) and Dr Martin Skov (Theme 5) provided an overview of up-scaling biodiversity and ecosystem services and the creation of novel tools for Ecosystem Service Provisioning given our current understanding of the data. Dr Neal Hockley (also Theme 4) gave us an insight into how he could assess how decision makers in Morecambe and Essex use ecosystem science and the importance of the importance of biodiversity – ecosystem service concepts.
The CBESS team is making excellent progress towards its aim of working with land managers, policy makers etc. to better understand how ecosystem service flows operate at large spatial scales in salt marshes and mudflats.
Meriem Kayoueche-Reeve, CBESS Project Officer