Salt marshes off St. Andrews and Dornoch can grow again
This is a second world, hidden behind the hustle and bustle of the world-famous golf courses around the Old Course at St. Andrews and the Royal Dornoch Golf Club in Scotland. Green Shores is the name of the University of St. Andrews‘ project to restore salt marshes to their natural state. You can catch a glimpse of it from the ninth tee of the New Course at St. Andrews or along the coastal holes of the Struie Course in Dornoch. If you look at drone images of the areas, you can see the cracks and gaps in the salt marshes that allow the golf courses to be flooded and the coasts to erode during storm surges.
“Basically, we are trying to fill these gaps with new salt marshes,” explains Dr. Clare Maynard, who is leading the project. “Over time, the new salt marsh areas will merge with the natural terrain.” The function of salt marshes should not be underestimated: They increase biodiversity, serve as natural coastal protection against storm surges and erosion, filter nutrients from the water and contribute to water improvement. Salt marshes are also important carbon sinks that can bind and store large quantities of CO₂.
Salt marshes are under threat worldwide
The salt marshes are not doing well: Urbanization and infrastructure development along coastlines has reduced them, as has conversion to landfill or land reclamation. Rising sea levels are already threatening them, and wastewater, pesticides and nutrient inputs from agriculture are impairing their functioning. In Scotland, just 7000 to 8000 hectares of salt marshes remain.
The restoration of the salt marshes is a small-scale process that begins in St. Andrews, hidden behind a wall near the Eden Course in a so-called polytunnel. Green Shores is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by Nature Scot. “This is where we work with volunteers to develop the plants that we will later release into the marshland,” explains Dr. Helena Simmons, who is also involved in the Green Shores project. The Links Trust of St Andrews provides the site and is also involved in some of the funding, and the hours of work are largely carried out by volunteers from St Andrews, who have long recognized that the coastline off the university town is permanently affected by erosion from high tides and flooding.
The plants that are released here in St. Andrews are different from those in the Tay of Firth off Royal Dornoch. “It is important that the plants are really those that are fully adapted to the local environment,” explains Simmons. Once large enough, they are released into the marshes, which are protected by small fences behind which the sand sediments are trapped, but which also protect the young plants. In 2018, the scientists launched a similar experiment in Dornoch with bio-mats consisting of nets into which coconut fibers are incorporated. “Unfortunately, the biorolls couldn’t withstand the storms and most of the plants were washed away in the first winter,” summarizes Maynard.
The situation has changed with the small fences, and successes are being achieved in both Dornoch and St. Andrews. These are measured using hyperspectral imaging, among other things, which documents the growth of the areas and the height of the marsh.
In the middle of the salt marshes in St. Andrews, all the insects are buzzing in summer. A closer look reveals bright yellow algae and mosses, deep blue flowers and a variety of plants. Then you look out towards the sea, and the question arises as to whether all this isn’t somehow a Sisyphean task. Simmons points to all the areas that have already been added in St. Andrews and cheerfully refers to the successes of Green Shores in Dornoch. “If we don’t even try to improve the situation, we will definitely fail.”
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Image: Petra Himmel