Articles | Volume 21, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-929-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-929-2024
Research article
 | 
20 Feb 2024
Research article |  | 20 Feb 2024

UAV approaches for improved mapping of vegetation cover and estimation of carbon storage of small saltmarshes: examples from Loch Fleet, northeast Scotland

William Hiles, Lucy C. Miller, Craig Smeaton, and William E. N. Austin

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Cited articles

Adam, P.: Geographical variation in British saltmarsh vegetation, J. Ecol., 66, 339–366, https://doi.org/10.2307/2259141, 1978. 
Andrieu, C., De Freitas, N., Doucet, A., and Jordan, M. I.: An introduction to MCMC for machine learning, Mach. Learn., 50, 5–42, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020281327116, 2003. 
Austin, W. E. N., Smeaton, C., Riegel, S., Ruranska, P., and Miller, L.: Blue carbon stock in Scottish saltmarsh soils, Scot. Mar. Fresh. Sci., 12, 37 pp., https://doi.org/10.7489/12372-1, 2021. 
Balke, T., Stock, M., Jensen, K., Bouma, T. J., and Kleyer, M.: A global analysis of the seaward salt marsh extent: the importance of tidal range, Water Resour. Res., 52, 3775–3786, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR018318, 2016. 
Balke, T., Vovides, A., Schwarz, C., Chmura, G. L., Ladd, C., and Basyuni, M.: Monitoring tidal hydrology in coastal wetlands with the “Mini Buoy”: applications for mangrove restoration, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 1229–1244, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1229-2021, 2021. 
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Short summary
Saltmarsh soils may help to limit the rate of climate change by storing carbon. To understand their impacts, they must be accurately mapped. We use drone data to estimate the size of three saltmarshes in NE Scotland. We find that drone imagery, combined with tidal data, can reliably inform our understanding of saltmarsh size. When compared with previous work using vegetation communities, we find that our most reliable new estimates of stored carbon are 15–20 % smaller than previously estimated.
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