Identification

Title

Species point records from 1984 OPRU Isles of Scilly monitoring

Abstract

The Isles of Scilly are one of 7 locations identified in Great Britain as proposed statutory marine nature reserves. In order to provide information to assist in management of these areas, monitoring programmes are being developed which are aimed at detecting change in populations and communities of high nature conservation importance. In the Isles of Scilly, the specific objectives were to 'establish a monitoring programme to investigate changes in species and communities of high nature conservation interest. This will include studies on Zostera beds present on the sand flats between the larger islands'. In addition, 2 sites were established for monitoring littoral underboulder communities and some further surveys of sublittoral sites were carried out. This report describes part of the work undertaken in the Isles of Scilly. Studies of the sea urchin Echinus esculentus and an aerial photographic survey will be described elsewhere. Two adjacent sites at one location north of Gap Point on the east side of St Mary's were selected for photographic monitoring of Mediterranean-Atlantic species of high scientific interest. They were marked with pitons and a reference line was tied between the pitons. Both distance and close-up photographs were taken along the line. The photography worked well in providing record photographs and can be repeated in future years. The extensive beds of Zostera marina present in the Isles of Scilly are of considerable conservation importance. The work described here was undertaken in beds at English Island and Old Grimsby Harbour and was aimed at measuring the density of plants and length of leaves, recording the species associated with the Zostera and comparing the 2 sites. The English Island site was found to be much richer in the variety and abundance of associated species than the Old Grimsby Harbour site although the plants there were more dense. Underboulder communities at several locations in the Isles of Scilly are considered to be especially rich examples of this type of habitat. Two sites were selected for study and monitoring: at English Island Point and on the east side of Samson. Here, boulders selected for study were lifted, the undersides photographed using a picture area of 0.033 m/2, and the species present were noted. The location of the boulders was recorded on polaroid photographs. Dives were undertaken at 4 additional locations to provide further data and photographs for the descriptions of habitats and communities in the Isles of Scilly. Records were made from Peninnus Head, Giant's Castle and Deep Point (St Mary's) and from north of St Agnes. A summary of the main recommendations made were: Photographic monitoring - Re-photograph the site established in 1984 at about the same time of year in 1985 and make a detailed comparison. Zostera bed - Re-survey the English Island and Old Grimsby Harbour sites including descriptive and quantitative work at about the same time of year for the next 2 years to assess the stability of the different community types. - Undertake vertical aerial photography employing a specialist company to provide large format colour transparency photographs to a set scale for mapping. Underboulder communities - Re-survey and photograph the same boulders at about the same time of year in 1985 and make a detailed comparison. Concern was also expressed that sea-borne dumping at Gap Point had occurred very near to some of the richest populations of sponges in the Isles of Scilly and that protection was appropriate.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

http://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/24dd1d3b-65b2-4fe0-8d7d-209a49dafd2d-1984-OPRU-Isles-of-Scilly-monitoring.csv

name: 1984-OPRU-Isles-of-Scilly-monitoring.csv

Unique resource identifier

code

24dd1d3b-65b2-4fe0-8d7d-209a49dafd2d

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Additional information source

Hiscock (1985) Littoral and sublittoral monitoring in the Isles of Scilly, September 22nd to 29th, 1984

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

oceans

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Marine

Marine Recorder

JNCCMNCR10000188

MNCR

Species

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-6.426422933

East bounding longitude

-6.242422643

North bounding latitude

49.98449825

South bounding latitude

49.86063091

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1984-09-22

End position

1984-09-29

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2001-08-29

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

eng