A Natural England commissioned verification survey. Littoral biotope survey and condition assessment of the Lynher Estuary SSSI. The purpose of the study was to establish a physical and biological baseline dataset to facilitate an assessment of favourable condition status of littoral sediment habitats of the SSSI site, as well as identifying species and biotopes that are representative and/or notable within the Lynher Estuary, in particular the distribution and extent of saltmarsh. The study comprised of Phase I and Phase II surveys. Phase I comprised of groundtruthing aerial photography to establish the distribution and extent of intertidal biotopes, interest features and species. Followed by Phase II; detailed descriptions of biotopes present , flora and fauna species list and abundance, as well as sediment characteristics by means of box-core sampling. The data was used to produce a detailed biotope map of the Lynher Estuary.
