RDE589 National saltmarsh nutrient survey 2024-2025

Tender description

As part of Year 3 of the marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme (mNCEA), the Environment Agency are running a project called the Land-Sea Interface (LSI), which aims to improve the evidence of ecosystem services in key estuarine and coastal habitats, such as saltmarsh, seagrass and shellfish beds. This project will build on last year's work (2023-2024) and aims to address the evidence gap in the rate at which nutrients (N and P) are removed from the water column and sediments by saltmarsh habitats, with a focus on N loss through denitrification. Specifically, it will target the evidence gap of how different marshes across the country with different characteristics (particularly sediment types) influence denitrification. The evidence from this project can then be fed into Cefa's Combined Phytoplankton- Macroalgae (CPM) model. This will enable us to better understand the full range of services and benefits provided by our saltmarsh natural capital assets.