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ABPmer
Quayside Suite
Medina Chambers
Town Quay
Southampton
SO14 2AQ
2003
Managed realignment
United Kingdom
Cromarty Firth (Highland Region)
-4.0332
57.7389
Mudflat
Saltmarsh
Transitional Grassland
25 Hectares
Habitat Creation
Demonstration or Pilot Project
Create a More Natural Shoreline
The RSPB’s Nigg Bay nature reserve (Cromarty Firth) is Scotland’s first coastal realignment. It was implemented in February 2003, after several years of planning and studying. For this project two 20m-wide breaches were dug into the existing sea wall at the field known locally as ‘Meddat Marsh’ in Nigg Bay. This allowed the tide to enter the field for the first time since the 1950s.
Reports produced by the RSPB including Elliott 2015 and Densham 2016 (see reference details below) provide a valuable description of how the project was implemented and how it developed. They describe the improvements to biodiversity and how habitat returned more swiftly than expected.
The case study review by Densham 2016 describes how, by that time, Meddat Marsh was supporting up to 2,000 of the 10,000 or so birds that winter in the whole of Nigg Bay (depending on tides & weather). Ten species of wading birds and nine species of wildfowl were recorded using the site. A good saltmarsh flora had developed and the site held invertebrates of a size valuable as wading bird food. The realignment had a full range of saltmarsh zones, from grassland, through upper, mid and lower saltmarsh communities to mudflats.
Monitoring and evaluation of the site continues and researchers from the University of St Andrews, UK-CEH, Bangor and the RSPB visited in May 2021. The team carried out vegetation surveys and systematic sediment coring as part of a Scotland-wide survey of saltmarsh soil carbon stocks. The creation of extensive new saltmarsh habitats at this site is highlighting what the team now believe to be an extraordinary Blue Carbon success story. Cores taken during this visit are being analysed by the University of St Andrews to quantify the soil Carbon stocks that have accumulated at this site since the breach in February 2003.
ABPmer
Quayside Suite
Medina Chambers
Town Quay
Southampton
SO14 2AQ