2015 Natural England Langstone Harbour Intertidal Soft Sediment Surveys
Survey name: 2015 Natural England Langstone Harbour Intertidal Soft Sediment Surveys This is a collation of surveys to gather data and evidence from a variety of marine environments. The survey purposes vary and include recommended Marine Conservation Zone (rMCZ) Phase I or II verification surveys, condition assessments, surveys of features of Natura 2000 sites (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area), Intertidal surveys, Benthic grab surveys and others. All surveys are carried out to specified standards and follow established methodologies. Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year].
dataset
https://data.nbn.org.uk/Datasets/GA001574
protocol: http
name:
description: Natural England Access to Evidence Catalogue
57ebd6a8-08d0-46c6-9253-547c27854df6
eng
http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700
environment
environment
Habitats and biotopes
publication
2008-06-01
-1.44
-0.97
50.85
50.7
Invalid Date
2015-01-10
creation
2016-09-30
publication
2016-09-30
notPlanned
"APEM was commissioned by Natural England to conduct an intertidal survey of the habitats and their notable communities within the Langstone Harbour Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Ryde Sands and Wootton Creek SSSI and Newtown Harbour SSSI to provide data to inform condition monitoring assessments. The objective of the survey was to conduct a Phase I survey to determine biotope distribution with 100% coverage of each SSSI and Phase II core sampling to provide quantitative data for biota and particle size distribution at sample stations in the intertidal zone. Survey results were compared against previous assessments to make an assessment of change in condition of the intertidal features/sub-features of the SSSIs.the Langstone Harbour SSSI, eight SSSI units were targeted for quantitative core sampling and a single sampling station was targeted within each transect in each SSSI unit. At Wootton Creek, Units 1-6 were targeted for core sampling, each with one sampling station Within the Ryde Sands SSSI seven units were surveyed with one sampling station in Units 16 and 17 and two sampling stations along single transects for Units 11, 12, 13 and 14. Twenty two transects across 19 SSSI units were selected for sampling to provide representative coverage of the intertidal biotopes within Newtown Harbour SSSI. Ten transects had one mid-shore sampling station whilst the other twelve each had two sampling stations (one on the low shore and one mid-shore). In total 180 cores were acquired for benthic faunal analysis and 60 samples collected for particle size analysis. dFor Langstone Harbour SSSI the analysis integrated sample data collected by the Environment Agency in 2014. Within Langstone Harbour sampling stations were found to primarily comprise of a high percentage of mud with some sand, although stations L6 and L7 were found to be more gravelly in nature. Sand content was very high at Ryde with very little or no mud/fine sediments. At the stations in Wootton Creek the percentage of mud in sediments was much higher than sand and stations were typically either classed as Gravelly mud, Slightly gravelly mud or Sandy mud. In Newtown Harbour most sampling stations possessed little gravel material with a general trend towards more muddy sediments with some sand.gastropod mollusc Peringia ulvae was the most abundant species across the samples collected, contributing over 30 percent of total abundance. Nematode worms and several annelid polychaetes (Tharyx species A, Capitella and Praxillella affinisand the oligochaete Tubificoides benedii comprised the majority of the remaining abundance across the survey. Overall, given the varying nature of sediment composition, the intertidal areas within the SSSIs were found to be reasonably diverse, with some impoverished areas. different biotopes were identified within the Langstone Harbour SSSI during the Phase I survey, including a number of biotope variants not currently described in the national classification (Connor et al., 2004). The predominant biotope across much of Langstone Harbour was A2.312 Hediste diversicolor and Macoma balthica in littoral sandy mud (LS.LMu.MEst.HedMac), which was found across the north east and western areas of the harbour inclusive of Units 3, 7, 10 and 13. Ryde Sands and Wootton Creek SSSI a total of 22 different biotopes (including variants) were denoted. Wootton Creek was predominantly characterised by A2.3223 Hediste diversicolor and oligochaetes in littoral mud(LS.LMu.UEst.Hed.Ol). Along Ryde Sands, biotope variation was considerable, with a range of sandier sediments supporting differing benthic invertebrate communities e.g. A2.241 Macoma balthica and Arenicola marina in muddy sand shores (LS.LSa.MuSa.MacAre). total of 23 different biotopes were present in Newtown Harbour. The coastline was typically dominated by A2.231 polychaetes in littoral fine sand (LS.LSa.FiSa.Po), especially on the lower shore, while a large proportion of the creeks and channels within the harbour consisted of A2.3 littoral mud (LS.LMu) with saltmarsh biotopes dominating the upper shores, especially in the east. of historical data and the current findings within Langstone Harbour indicated that the composition of much of the harbour has remained similar although variation in environmental conditions and natural change over time has resulted in some changes at finer scales with shifts in some community assemblages. The faunal data indicated that the same dominant taxa found previously were again prevalent during in the current survey. o previous historical data was available for Ryde Sands and Wootton Creek SSSI. Historical data was also limited for Newtown Harbour SSSI, with only two locations sampled in 2006 and 2012 (ERT, 2006; CMACS, 2012). A broad comparison found that sediments and faunal communities appear to have remained broadly similar, although some variation has occurred over time. overall condition assessment found that the condition of the SSSIs has remained similar to that recorded in previous surveys, however, confidence in the assessment is limited due to a lack of suitable historic data. Consequently, the current assessment enables a broad indication of condition based on previous data currently available, but going forward it provides more detailed quantitative baseline data and biotope mapping outputs for each SSSI for future condition assessments.for the taxa Parapionosyllis macaronesiensis, Cossura pygodactylata, Tubificoides nerthoides, Araneae, Oribatei, Dolichopodidae and Scathophagidae could not be entered into Marine Recorder as they are not included in the current taxon list (version 5.40) and as such records for these taxa have been been provided as a separate import spreadsheet so that they can be added once the taxon list has been updated. d"
Open format | Comma Separated Values file (CSV)
11
Open Government Licence
There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.
There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.
Natural England
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https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england
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Natural England
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2023-12-13