This series comprises biological, ecological and physical data from the Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (CBESS) project. The CBESS project addressed the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem service flows for selected salt marsh and mudflat habitats. CBESS ran from 2012 to 2016 and involved nine universities, two non-government organisations and three statutory bodies, all concerned with the ecology and management of coastal systems. Data was collected from three salt marsh and mudflat sites in Morecambe Bay, North West England and a further three on the Essex coast, South East England in the winter and summer of 2013. Measurements at each site included comprehensive biological, ecological and physical data collected from 22 quadrats arranged over a hierarchy of spatial scales (1m, 10m, 100m).
This data series was collected as part of the CBESS programme (NE/J015644/1), under the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) initiative. BESS is a six-year programme (2011-2017) funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as part of the UK's Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) programme.