2002 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Firth of Tay and Eden Estuary joint broad-scale mapping survey

The Firth of Tay and the Eden Estuary are situated on the east coast of Scotland between Carnoustie in the north and St Andrews in the south and the site has been selected as a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC). The qualifying features include estuaries, mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide, sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time and common seals Phoca vitulina. It is also an important site for overwintering wildfowl and waders. In order that a comprehensive management plan can be developed to ensure the sustainable use of resources within the marine cSAC it is essential to obtain an understanding of the geographic distribution and extent of the habitats of interest. A comprehensive biotope mapping survey of the intertidal and subtidal habitats was undertaken in the summer of 2002, by a collaborative research group comprising staff from the University of St Andrews, Heriot-Watt University and SNH. Mapping of the intertidal was accomplished principally through the employment of QuickBird satellite imagery, ground truthed with data collected in intertidal field survey (at a subset of locations samples were collected for sediment infauna and granulometric analysis). Subtidal areas of the site were surveyed by rapid broad scale acoustic techniques, ground truthed with data collected in the field using ROV, epifaunal samples by naturalists dredge and infaunal samples collected by both pipe and Van Veen grab; subsamples retained for granulometric analysis.泰河湾（Firth of Tay）与埃登河口（Eden Estuary）地处苏格兰东海岸，北至卡努斯蒂（Carnoustie）、南抵圣安德鲁斯（St Andrews），该区域已被遴选为潜在特殊保护区（candidate Special Area of Conservation，cSAC）。其入选评估特征包括河口、低潮裸露的潮间带泥滩与沙滩、长期被海水轻度覆盖的沙洲，以及普通海豹（Phoca vitulina）。该区域同时也是越冬水禽与滨鸟的重要栖息场所。为制定全面管理计划以保障该海洋潜在特殊保护区内资源的可持续利用，明确目标生境的地理分布与覆盖范围至关重要。2002年夏季，由圣安德鲁斯大学、赫瑞-瓦特大学（Heriot-Watt University）与苏格兰自然遗产署（Scottish Natural Heritage，SNH）组成的联合研究团队，对该区域的潮间带与潮下带生境开展了系统性生境制图调查。潮间带制图主要依托QuickBird卫星影像完成，并通过潮间带野外调查数据进行实地校准：在部分采样点位采集了沉积物内生生物样本与粒度分析样本。潮下带区域则采用快速大范围声学勘测技术开展调查，并结合多类野外采集数据完成实地校准，包括通过水下机器人（Remotely Operated Vehicle，ROV）获取的实测数据、自然学者使用拖网采集的表生生物样本，以及通过采样管与范维恩采泥器（Van Veen grab）采集的内生生物样本，其中部分子样本留存用于粒度分析。