Hannah Mossman, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia. Photocredits: David White. Made With Serif WebPlus.
Research Interests
I work with Alastair Grant and Tony Davy on various aspects of the ecology and restoration of intertidal habitats.
Our research has included detailed ecological surveying of almost all of the UK’s managed realignment sites and older sites accidentally lost to the sea, plus a set of nearby natural marshes. Through this work we have a good understanding of the plant species that colonise managed realignments and the rates at which they do so.
We found that a range of halophytic (salt-tolerant) species can quickly colonise newly restored sites. However, a number of important species are absent from many restored sites and are rare on the remainder. The deficient species, Sea Lavender (Limonium vulgare), Sea Arrow-grass (Triglochin maritimum), Sea Plantain (Plantago maritima) and Thrift (Armeria maritima) are key components of plant communities on mature, diverse saltmarshes. This is not simply a delay in colonisation, because these species are also absent or scarce from saltmarsh sites that were accidentally flooded 50 to 100 years ago during storms. We have been working to establish the abiotic factors causing these differences.
Our current work, funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, is working to improve the biodiversity of restored saltmarshes by defining ecological niches of important saltmarsh plants typically deficient on managed realignment sites. Field manipulations of microtopography revealed poor local drainage conditions may lead to reduced colonisation of species characteristic of mature marsh; glasshouse experiments confirmed substantial differences in species’ tolerances of low redox potentials generated by waterlogging treatments.
I am a post-doctoral ecology researcher in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. My PhD, which I obtained in 2007, examined the vegetation development of restored salt marshes. Since then I have continued to work at UEA on a range of projects, including assessing the salt tolerance of a salt marsh grass, developing methods to enable the quantification of tidal regimes and establishing an approach for prioritising regional biodiversity conservation.
I have been working with Dr Paul Dolman and Chris Panter to development a methodology to assess the priorities for conservation – the Biodiversity Audit Approach. There is more information about this on our biodiversity audit page.
We have also developed methods that enable us to quantify tidal regimes at large numbers of sites simultaneously.
For more information on this methodology, click here
Mossman HL, Davy AJ, Grant A, 2011. Quantifying local variation in tidal regime using depth-logging fish tags. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, In Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2011.10.019
Davy AJ, Brown MJH, Mossman HL, Grant A, 2011. Colonisation of a newly developing salt marsh: disentangling independent effects of elevation and redox potential on halophytes. Journal of Ecology, 99:1350-1357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01870.x
Mossman HL, Brown MJH, Davy AJ, Grant A, 2011. Constraints on salt marsh development following managed coastal realignment: dispersal limitation or environmental tolerance? Restoration Ecology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2010.00745.x
Mossman HL, 2007. Development of saltmarsh vegetation in response to coastal realignment. Unpublished Ph,D, thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
Davy AJ, Bishop GF, Mossman HL, Rendondo-Gomez, Castillo JM, Castellanos EM, Figueroa ME, 2006. Biological Flora of British Isles: Sarcocornia perennis (Miller)A.J. Scott. Journal of Ecology 94: 1035-1048.
Panter CJ, Mossman HL, Dolman PM, 2011. Biodiversity Audit and Tolerance Sensitivity Mapping for the Broads. Broads Authority Report. University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Dolman PM, Mossman HL, Panter CJ, Armour-Chelu N, Nichols B, Pankhurst T, 2011. The Biodiversity Importance of Breckland. British Wildlife April 2011
Dolman PM, Panter CJ, Mossman HL, 2010. Securing Biodiversity in Breckland: Guidance for Conservation and Research. First Report of the Breckland Biodiversity Audit. University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Ecology and restoration of intertidal habitats
Biodiversity Audit
Measurement of tidal regime
Publications
Contacts:
Dr Hannah Mossman
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
01603 593192
