42 - Lincolnshire Coast and Marshes : Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services

Introduction

The Lincolnshire Coast and Marshes NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the Lincolnshire Coast and Marshes NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this website.

What is Natural Capital?

Natural capital means “the elements of nature that directly or indirectly produce value to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals, the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions” (Natural Capital Committee, 2017).

It is helpful to consider natural capital in the form of a logic chain that represents the links between ecosystem assets, services, benefits and value to people. The figure below displays that logic chain. The quantity and quality of ecosystem assets (woodland, bogs, etc) support different types of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration or water filtration. These ecosystem services then provide different benefits to society, providing value for people. The figure also shows how management interventions, as well as pressures and drivers of change, influence this chain. Other capital inputs are also often needed for people to obtain the benefits from ecosystem services (a simple example is the processing of trees to produce wood products).

As an example, an area of woodland (ecosystem asset) may reduce air pollution created by traffic on a nearby road. This woodland is therefore improving air quality (ecosystem service) in the local area which results in cleaner air and improved health in the adjacent residential street (benefit). This cleaner air has a value because we know it impacts the health and wellbeing of communities.

Sometimes for ease of understanding, economic framing is used to give these benefits a monetary value. The figure below shows how natural capital assets support the provision of ecosystem services, benefits and value. The roots of the tree show how aspects of asset quality are critical to the provision of ecosystem services. The roots also show that geodiversity underpins the ecosystem assets and therefore the ecosystem services and benefits they can provide. It is important to remember that this diagram, and natural capital frameworks more generally, are a simplification of how nature works in practice.

Natural Capital within this NCA

In 2018, Natural England published ‘Natural Capital Indicators: for defining and measuring change in natural capital’ (Lusardi et al., 2018). This report identified key properties of the natural environment vital for the long-term sustainability of benefits, which can act as indicators of change.

These indicators are designed to inform our understanding of the state of our natural assets. The indicators highlight the importance of our natural assets for delivering which ecosystem service and the benefits they provide for society. The indicators and datasets identified in Natural England’s Natural Capital Indicators Project provide the foundation for the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.

Natural England’s Natural Capital Atlas Profiles provide an “off the shelf” natural capital evidence base for each county or city region. They have a wide variety of uses with more information in the How to Start Using Your Natural Capital Atlas.

The Natural Capital indicators are presented on the map below by broad asset theme, displaying the natural capital within the NCA.

It is noted that not all indicators listed within the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles are included within the map as data is not yet available to measure them. Refer to the “Indicator Gaps and Limitations” of the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles for further information.

Natural Capital Atlas Profiles

The following Natural Capital Atlas Profiles cover counties within this NCA:
 

• 11: East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull and the Humber
• 23: Lincolnshire

Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)

Food provision: Extensive areas of fertile soils support arable farming systems, with cereal production forming the greatest land use. Of the soils only 4 per cent is Grade 1, with 16 per cent Grade 2 agricultural. This land is found mainly on the lower slopes of the Wolds along the western edge. Some 71 per cent of the area is Grade 3 land, some of which is farmed to produce vegetables and root crops as well as a mix of arable crops including oilseed.

This is a landscape dominated by arable production – wheat and oilseed rape – followed by grassland or root crops. It is a producer of beef, lamb and milk with small beef and dairy herds. Lincoln Red cattle, the native breed of Lincolnshire, are adapted to coastal grazing marshes.

Water availability: The chalk aquifer underlies the NCA and is one of the most important sources of water for the Yorkshire and Humber and East Midlands regions. It used extensively by businesses and agriculture and for public and private water supply. The groundwater is, however, over-abstracted as there is a high demand for water to irrigate crops.

There are a number of rivers in the NCA including the Great Eau, the Steeping and the River Freshney which rise in the adjacent Lincolnshire Wolds. The rivers have an over-abstracted status and where Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy (CAMS) assessments have been undertaken their status is assessed as having ‘no water available’. For information regarding the current state of water availability within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Abstraction Licensing Strategy).

Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation)

Climate regulation: Long-term storage of carbon is provided by areas of salt marsh, mudflats and coastal marine sediments, reedbeds, permanent grassland and grazing marshes. There is relatively little woodland in the NCA and there is low soil carbon content throughout most of it, especially where there is extensive arable cultivation.

Regulating water quality:For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).

Regulating soil quality: Glacial tills across the Middle Marsh on the western side give rise to permeable, seasonally waterlogged, fine loamy soils. To the east, the Outmarsh’s marine alluvium deposits produce soils of deep clay and fertile soils of a calcareous character. However, slowly permeable, seasonally wet, slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils may suffer compaction and/or capping as they are easily damaged when wet. In turn, this may lead to increasingly poor water infiltration and diffuse pollution as a result of surface water run-off. Management measures on cultivated land that increase organic matter content can help to reduce these problems.

Similarly, the slightly acid, loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage are easily poached by livestock and compacted by machinery when the soil is wet. Any weak topsoil structures can easily be damaged.

Careful timing of activities is required to reduce the likelihood of soil compaction as well as adopting cultivation practices such as increasing the organic content of soils, introducing fallow into rotations and overwinter stubbles, and avoiding overstocking or using machinery where it would lead to the compaction of vulnerable soils.

Regulating water flow: The NCA is mainly low lying. The Environment Agency flood risk maps indicate that the majority of the NCA is at high risk of river and/or coastal flooding. Flood control is a key issue for most of the NCA, particularly since the major flooding events in 1953 and the surges and flood warnings in 2013.

Settlements are offered some protection by flood defences. However these give rise to coastal squeeze’ whereby intertidal habitats are lost between the rising sea levels and the flood banks. This can be addressed by managed realignment to enable the continued expansion of intertidal habitats.

Flooding can affect properties, businesses, transport, infrastructure and farming. The agricultural productivity of the area is dependent on pumped drainage as it would be naturally waterlogged for much of the time.

The managed realignment of modified watercourses, for example the development of Washlands at Manby and more recently reconnecting the Great Eau with its floodplain on land near Saltfleetby.

Regulating coastal flooding and erosion: Important coastal processes occurring within the NCA and beyond involving accretion and coastal erosion are taking place. Sediments from the North Sea are drawn in and out and this process needs to be maintained. The process contributes to habitats along the coast – formed of mudflats, salt marshes, sand dunes and which provide internationally important habitats as well as important natural sea defences, backed by manmade coastal defences.

The Environment Agency has been running major coastal flood defence schemes to reduce flood risk to homes and businesses on the Lincolnshire coast.

Sea level rise and more frequent storm events may exacerbate coastal erosion and increase the scale of flood events. Climate change presents a challenge to how we regulate and/or change the balance. For information regarding current shoreline management within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Shoreline management plans).

Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)

Sense of history: The open character of the area, with its distinctive boundaries and range of natural and historic features, including the characteristic salterns, retains a strong sense of having been reclaimed from the sea.

Medieval and post-medieval features are present on the marshes. Monastic sites and granges and moated sites with some deserted settlements bear witness to 12th-13th-century reclamation and land use, and the subsequent contraction of settlement. Similarly, 18th-19th-century farmsteads and fieldscapes bear witness to later agricultural improvement.

Historically, the coastal salt industry was very important and influenced the historic routes across the coastal areas. The sediments themselves contain a record of ancient landscape and climates, with the currently wasting peat revealing well-preserved remains of prehistoric landscapes with especially rich archaeology. Archaeological features are present beneath the clays and silts and at high tides, and evidence of ancient forests in exposed intertidal areas has been found.

The coast with its anti-invasion defences provides a sense of history during the two World Wars and contributes to our understanding of the area and its recent history.

Tranquillity: The highest scores for tranquillity are found in the more rural, isolated areas away from settlements and transport networks. Strong contributors to tranquillity include the flat, low-lying topography and extensive views, sparse settlement patterns in rural areas, the farmed landscape, inaccessible parts of the coast and sea views.

The proportion of areas that are disturbed remains low, with tranquillity reduced around expanding urban settlements and main transport corridors. Grimsby and Cleethorpes have the lowest scores for tranquillity. Louth, Alford, Mablethorpe and Skegness also have comparatively greater disturbance than more rural areas.

Recreation: A variety of recreational opportunities exist here including walking, fishing, water sports, kitesurfing, sea fishing, cycling, bird watching and, in the summer, sunbathing and swimming. The area hosts many ‘Blue Flag’ beaches on its popular coast (including those at Cleethorpes, Skegness, Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea). The Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park is a popular tourist destination and there are increasing opportunities for green tourism.

Public rights of way are limited and only 1.4 per cent per cent of the NCA is publicly accessible. New national coastal access routes are planned and there are opportunities to develop local walks to build on existing routes.

The settlements of the north Lincolnshire coast have a number of sites with recreational opportunities and limited public access routes. Where there are pockets of deprivation (as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation), more greenspace, recreational opportunities and improved access to greenspace can help to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community.

Biodiversity: This NCA is particularly important for its biodiversity and has coastal areas designated as Ramsar sites for their internationally important bird populations.

Areas have been designated as SAC and SPA owing to their varied coastal habitats and for the large numbers of wintering wildfowl and nationally important and diverse range of bird species on the Humber Estuary and The Wash. The area is also home to an important colony of grey seals and supports common seals.

Many different habitats including saline lagoons, mudflats, salt marshes and sand dunes support important populations, for example the Cleethorpes sand dune complexes, Gibraltar Point and various NNRs.

The area is important in terms of the wetland habitats and associated species – for instance, it is a key area for protected species including water vole6 and rare wetland plants. Other species of note are present in the NCA, including natterjack toad.

The grazing marshes hold valuable habitats and support waders and ground- nesting birds. The NCA also contains arable habitats that are valuable for supporting nationally important farmland bird populations – bird species found here include the Arable Assemblage for the East Midlands.

Geodiversity: The wealth of geodiversity interest in the NCA is in part linked to its location on the coast and in particular its geomorphology and complex patterns of erosion and accretion. The Lincolnshire Coast and Marshes NCA falls within the Flamborough Head to The Wash sediment cell and is within the same sediment cell as the Holderness and Humber Estuary NCAs. The mouth of the Humber is important for its associated sands and mudflats and shifting geomorphology. The more recent Holocene deposits along the coast, notably at Chapel Point to Wolla Bank Site of Special Scientific Interest, provide a lot of information about the recent rise and fall of sea levels and the associated environmental change.

Gibraltar Point is a very dynamic part of the East Coast and, in contrast with many parts of eastern England, it is still accreting. The innermost part of its pair of almost parallel dune systems separated by salt marsh is believed to be at least 300 years old.

Clay pits occurring in the area, for example at Goxhill, have traditionally provided an important centre for clay pantile production since the 18th century. There are also borrow pits formed when defences reinforced post 1953 floods particularly Sea Bank Clay Pits SSSI.