Identification

Title

Species point records from 1985 University of Bristol upper Severn Estuary survey

Abstract

This study was commissioned to extend the sparse information on the ecology of the Upper Severn Estuary in relation to the feasibility study to place a tidal energy barrage at English Stones. The report is in 3 parts: literature survey, field survey and a discussion of possible changes due to barrage construction. The literature survey examines published information (44 papers) on algae, saltmarshes, fish, birds and invertebrates and discusses the findings. A field survey concentrated on the invertebrates occuring in the major habitats (rock, shingle, sand, mud and saltmarsh) in 5 sectors of the upper estuary from Avonmouth to the riverine stretches above Gloucester. The major conclusion is that tidal scour and its effects together with the different sediment types are equally important to reduced and varying salinity in controlling invertebrate distribution. As expected, major ecological changes are predicted if a barrage were constructed. Increased stability of the system due, in particular, to the reduction in current strength and scour could lead to increases in both the diversity and absolute number of invertebrates. There would also be an increase in the area occupied by Spartina marsh. The report concludes with recommendations for further research required necessary to properly evaluate the consequences of barrage construction. In addition, many samples of saltmarsh invertebrates from the present study still require examination. It seems clear from the engineering and economic studies of the English Stones barrage that the project would not be viable as rapid silting of the upper basin would prevent efficient operation.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

http://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/8f9532db-ca7a-4d4b-a559-a54a31e81db8-1985-University-of-Bristol-upper-Severn-Estuary-survey.csv

name: 1985-University-of-Bristol-upper-Severn-Estuary-survey.csv

Unique resource identifier

code

8f9532db-ca7a-4d4b-a559-a54a31e81db8

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Additional information source

Little, Wilson, Hinton, Morritt (1985) Ecology of the upper Severn estuary Doody (1982) A preliminary account of the vegetation of saltmarshes in Great Britian. Smith (1979) A survey of the saltmarshes in the Severn estuary

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

oceans

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Marine

Marine Recorder

JNCCMNCR10000196

MNCR

Species

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-2.721687502

East bounding longitude

-2.205225546

North bounding latitude

51.9772946

South bounding latitude

51.49871335

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1985-08-01

End position

1985-08-31

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2001-08-21

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

This survey was extracted from a Marine Recorder snapshot.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

Comma Separated Values

version of format

Unknown

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Open Government Licence v3.0

Limitations on public access

no limitations

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

custodian

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2018-05-17

Metadata language