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The salt marshes of Sullom Voe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

D. H. Dalby
D. H. Dalby
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, Imperial College, London
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Synopsis

The salt marshes of the Sullom Voe area are small in size and few in number, but they are important ecologically in being the vegetated upper parts of soft-sediment shores developed in sheltered locations, and in being likely to act as oil traps in the event of pollution by floating oil slicks. The marshes are species-poor, and are subjected to local erosion and reworking of sediments–factors which must influence any programme for the monitoring of their general ecological health. The salt marsh monitoring programme outlined here has three main components: (a) measurements of accretion and erosion; (b) measurements of stolon length in Puccinellia maritima (as an index of performance in the principal Angiosperm coloniser), and (c) measurements of frequency for eight species (or species groups) on areas of grass-poor salt marsh (the forb salt marsh). The scale of natural variation in these measurements from year to year is not known, so the first few years' data will provide a standard against which subsequent variation can be assessed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 80: The marine environment of Sullom Voe and the implication of oil developments , 1981 , pp. 191 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1981

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