Stephen Malcolm

Nutrient fluxes through the Humber estuary - past, present and future

Abstract The geomorphology of the present day and Holocene (3000 years ago) Humber estuary, United Kingdom, are described. More than 90% of the intertidal area and sediment accumulation capacity of the estuary has been lost to reclamation over this period. A similar situation prevails in many other urbanized estuaries. Nutrient budgets for the modern estuary are presented demonstrating little trapping of nutrients, due to the loss of intertidal areas. A speculative budget for the Humber during the Holocene is constructed, which suggests that the estuary was then an efficient sink for nitrogen and phosphorus. A budget is presented describing how nutrient cycling might operate in the Humber with contemporary nutrient loadings, but with the pre-reclamation geography. This suggests that in this form the estuary would significantly attenuate nutrient fluxes to the North Sea. The results are discussed in terms of options for managed realignment of estuaries in response to predicted sea-level rise.

Modelling potential impacts of bottom trawl fisheries on soft sediment biogeochemistry in the North Sea.

Bottom trawling causes physical disturbance to sediments particularly in shelf areas. The disturbance due to trawling is most significant in deeper areas with softer sediments where levels of natural disturbance due to wave and tidal action are low. In heavily fished areas, trawls may impact the same area of seabed more than four times per year. A single pass of a beam trawl, the heaviest gear routinely used in shelf sea fisheries, can kill 5–65% of the resident fauna and mix the top few cm of sediment. We expect that sediment community function, carbon mineralisation and biogeochemical fluxes will be strongly affected by trawling activity because the physical effects of trawling are equivalent to those of an extreme bioturbator, and yet, unlike bioturbating macrofauna, trawling does not directly contribute to community metabolism. We used an existing box-model of a generalised soft sediment system to examine the effects of trawling disturbance on carbon mineralisation and chemical concentrations. We contrasted the effects of a natural scenario, where bioturbation is a function of macrobenthos biomass, with an anthropogenic impact scenario where physical disturbance results from trawling rather than the action of bioturbating macrofauna. Simulation results suggest that the effects of low levels of trawling disturbance will be similar to those of natural bioturbators but that high levels of trawling disturbance prevent the modelled system from reaching equilibrium due to large carbon fluxes between oxic and anoxic carbon compartments. The presence of macrobenthos in the natural disturbance scenario allowed sediment chemical storage and fluxes to reach equilibrium. This is because the macrobenthos are important carbon consumers in the system whose presence reduces the magnitude of available carbon fluxes. In soft sediment systems, where the level physical disturbance due to waves and tides is low, model results suggest that intensive trawling disturbance could cause large fluctuations in benthic chemical fluxes and storage.

Coastal zone ecosystem services : from science to values and decision making : a case study

This research is concerned with the following environmental research questions: socio-ecological system complexity, especially when valuing ecosystem services; ecosystems stock and services flow sustainability and valuation; the incorporation of scale issues when valuing ecosystem services; and the integration of knowledge from diverse disciplines for governance and decision making. In this case study, we focused on ecosystem services that can be jointly supplied but independently valued in economic terms: healthy climate (via carbon sequestration and storage), food (via fisheries production in nursery grounds), and nature recreation (nature watching and enjoyment). We also explored the issue of ecosystem stock and services flow, and we provide recommendations on how to value stock and flows of ecosystem services via accounting and economic values respectively. We considered broadly comparable estuarine systems located on the English North Sea coast: the Blackwater estuary and the Humber estuary. In the past, these two estuaries have undergone major land-claim. Managed realignment is a policy through which previously claimed intertidal habitats are recreated allowing the enhancement of the ecosystem services provided by saltmarshes. In this context, we investigated ecosystem service values, through biophysical estimates and welfare value estimates. Using an optimistic (extended conservation of coastal ecosystems) and a pessimistic (loss of coastal ecosystems because of, for example, European policy reversal) scenario, we find that context dependency, and hence value transfer possibilities, vary among ecosystem services and benefits. As a result, careful consideration in the use and application of value transfer, both in biophysical estimates and welfare value estimates, is advocated to supply reliable information for policy making.

New approaches to improve the detection of eutrophication in UK coastal waters

Robust assessments of eutrophication are necessary to meet the requirements of a range of international (OSPAR) and EU legislative drivers. To meet these needs EU states have developed marine monitoring programmes designed to allow the application of specified assessment procedures. The UK has reviewed its approach to monitoring eutrophication and has identified a range of future requirements to ensure the evidence base for assessment is robust and the underpinning science is in place. This paper describes the pilot application of in situ monitoring technology (SmartBuoy). Currently, two buoys are deployed in the southern North Sea and a third in Liverpool Bay (Irish Sea). The network of SmartBuoys returns data on physical, chemical and biological variables in near real-time (www.cefas.co.uk/monitoring). The rationale for system and network design will be described. Data from the multi-year time series will be presented and their subsequent use in assessments of eutrophication will be described.

A Review of the Tools Used for Marine Monitoring in the UK: Combining Historic and Contemporary Methods with Modeling and Socioeconomics to Fulfill Legislative Needs and Scientific Ambitions

Marine environmental monitoring is undertaken to provide evidence that environmental management targets are being met. Moreover, monitoring also provides context to marine science and over the last century has allowed development of a critical scientific understanding of the marine environment and the impacts that humans are having on it. The seas around the UK are currently monitored by targeted, impact-driven, programmes (e.g. fishery or pollution based monitoring) often using traditional techniques, many of which have not changed significantly since the early 1900s. The advent of a new wave of automated technology, in combination with changing political and economic circumstances, means that there is currently a strong drive to move towards a more refined, efficient, and effective way of monitoring. We describe the policy and scientific rationale for monitoring our seas, alongside a comprehensive description of the types of equipment and methodology currently used and the technologies that are likely to be used in the future. We contextualise the way new technologies and methodologies may impact monitoring and discuss how whole ecosystems models can give an integrated, comprehensive approach to impact assessment. Furthermore, we discuss how an understanding of the value of each data point is crucial to assess the true costs and benefits to society of a marine monitoring programme.

What Future for the English Coastline? Managed Realignment Benefits and Their Value Estimate Transferability

This chapter provides a study of two managed realignment cases in comparable estuarine systems located on the English North Sea coast: the Blackwater estuary and the Humber estuary. Two scenarios of salt marsh expansion and reduction in these estuaries are used to analyse the multiple research challenges that arise, including value transfer and stock and flow issues. The coastal ecosystems are complex and require a thorough natural science understanding of conflicting ecosystem services changes. Moreover, net economic benefits of managed realignment can be demonstrated, but they are context and scale dependent and valuation practices and results should reflect this. The chapter offers some solutions and suggestions for further research on these generic research challenges for coastal ecosystem management.