A new carbon flux tower has been installed at Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth, Scotland's largest saltmarsh, to measure how much carbon the habitat removes from the atmosphere in real time. The project is a partnership between UKCEH, the Scottish government, NatureScot, and WWF-UK, and is the most northerly tower in a network around the UK coast. The data will help build evidence for including saltmarshes in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which could strengthen the case for protecting and restoring these habitats. Saltmarshes also support biodiversity and absorb wave energy, but about 85% of UK coverage has been lost since the mid-19th century due to land reclamation, pollution, and rising seas. Real-time measurement is a step toward quantifying their climate value.
