A Preliminary Note on the Ecology of Part of the South Lincolnshire Coast

Abstract

THE following notes are the result of a survey carried out by the authors at the request of the Land Reclamation Board. The Board have kindly granted permission for separate publication of the data obtained pending a further investig,ation of the more important points of interest suggested by the results. The salt marsh and sea-wall surv\eyed stretch from Gibraltar Point on the north to the mouth of the River Witham below Freiston shore on the south. The strip of marsh varies from about 200 yards to nearly a mile in width, extending along the coast for 17 miles. The sea-wall separates the marsh from reclaimed silt, which forms exceedingly fertile land, and consists of an earth bank 20 yards wide at the base and 15-20 feet high. It was constructed about 70 years ago when the last enclosure on a large scale took place. In Types of British Vegetation (pp. 330 et seq.), salt marsh is divided into five associations, but it was found that the district in question could not be mapped on this basis, especially for the purpose of the Reclamation Board. The zones or associations finally adopted were very well defined and constant in type. The lists of plants identified in each zone and also from a pasture and meadow adjacent to the wall on the landward side indicate the species occurring, in the months of July-August. (A) Bank zone: the sea-wall, with a settled type of pasture vegetation closely fed by sheep. In the north this was a well-established mixture with Loliur, perenne and Arrhenatherum, avenaceum, as dominants. In the south it passed to typical calcareous clayland pasture, but throughout the length of the wall calciphilous plants commonly occurred. For purposes of convenience a division was made at Wrangle (about midway) as this point marked a niatural separation of the types mentioned.