Salt Marsh at Chichester Case Study Notes

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  • Created by: amelia
  • Created on: 27-01-13 17:37

Where is chichester salt marsh

It is located on the West Sussex Coast. At Itchenor it's a walk westwards past Northshore boatyard.

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What species are there in chichester and how does

worms,shrimps,shellfish,fish, it wades for birds, provides a nusery area for wildfowl, nests for seabirds, sea lavender, sea aster, sea purslane, curlew, godwits, redshank, dunlin, beetles, crabs. It is helpful for animals that graze on the upper parts of the salt marsh 

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What happens on the lower levels of a salt marsh

It is washed by the tide twice everyday there is mainly glasswort which is a pioneer species 

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What happens on the upper parts of a salt marsh

The upper parts only gets covered in seawater a few times a year the plants are mainly grasses like sea couch rushes and sedges and sea lavender sea aster and sea purslane

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What ways has chichester tried to protect its mars

They have an open sluice and changed the field back to a salt marsh

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What natural problems are threatening chichester

  • sea level rise
  • erosion
  • colonisation by cordgrass
  • high tide covering the mud flats birds such as curlew godwits redshank and dunlin
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What human problems are harming chichester

  • coastal squeeze ( between the rising sea and fixed flood defence walls)
  • disturbance by people (creation of informal footpaths and trampling)
  • dredging (affects the movement of sediment)
  • grazing (although it can be beneficial it sometimes reduces height of the vegetation and the diversity of plant and invertebrate species)
  • sea defences (affects the movement of sediment)
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more detail

As you move up the shore there is clear indication of how frequent the salt marsh gets covered by sea water. From the lowest level the pioneer glassworts Salicornia spp can withstand immersion by as many as 600 tides per year, whilst the species which occupy the upper marsh can only take occasional floods. The lowest marsh inhabits the fewest amounts of species whilst the upper marsh has a much more diverse community. Where the salt marsh is grazed vegetation is shorter and there are more grasses.

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