Sea kale on the shingle sea shore

Sea kale (Crambe maritima)
Growing high on the shingle shore produces small white flowers in spring. Flowering plants will often be at least 5 years old! Sea kale is  commonly encountered along the south coast of England but can be seen elsewhere around the British Isles.

A changing shore, Norfolk Spring 2020

Its not just our daily lives that have been changing over the last few weeks.... the sandy shore at Hemsby has also been changing from shingle to sand, flat to lagoon......
This shore really shows what a mobile sand habitat can be like!


Depending which day over the last two months you saw this shore you could consider it different biotopes. Really demonstrating that temporal variation should be taken into account when mapping coastal systems.

Embryo Dune success varies along the beach at Winterton, Norfolk

The embryo dunes at Winterton continue to grow, but in Hemsby the winter storms have eroded them away...

Embryo Dunes at Winterton, Norfolk

It is great to see embryo Dunes forming Infront of the main dune system between Hemsby and Winterton. The coast here is subject to erosion but dunes protect the land behind. I hope these dunes will one day grow up like those behind!

Red Seaweed Identification

A diverse array of red seaweeds occur within the intertidal many of which require specialist terminology and equipment to identify them. 

The following posts include images of common red seaweed groups and seaweeds that can be identified in the field.

The first step in identifying red seaweeds is to be able to recognize the major groups, then try to recognize the family and note the habitat in which the seaweed is found. 

The most commonly recorded red seaweeds belong to the following orders:

Ahnfeltiales, Bangiales, Bonnemaisoniales, Ceramiales, Corallinales, Gigartinales, 

Gelidiales, Palmariales, Plocamiales,  Nemaliales and Rhodymeniales.

The orders Ceramiales, Corallinales, Gigartinales and Rhodymeniales contain the highest 
 number of common intertidal red seaweeds.

A tree weed - Washed up onto the shore at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk December 2014

Rockpooling with CoCoast and the barnacle survey!

A New year and a great time to get involved in rockpooling and citizen science by joining the cocoast barnacle survey!!

To find out more visit: https://www.capturingourcoast.co.uk/

Characterizing species of the upper eulittoal shore

The upper eulittoral shore hosts species that can with stand exposure to the atmosphere, many have adaptations to reduce water loss. Lichens are tough and barnacles and limpets occur in close proximity to create cooler, damper micro climates.

The communities you find on the upper eulittoral shore will differ depending on the wave exposure.

Below are images of characterizing species of the upper eulittoral shore:

Fucus spiralis occurs on sheltered to moderately exposed shores

On more exposed shores barnacles and shallow coralline rockpools occur.

Lichina pygmaea and small periwinkles (Melarhaphe neritoides) occur among the barnacles on South West shores.

Mytilus edulis also occur in low numbers

Often seaweeds from the sublittoral are washed up onto the upper eulittoral shore.

In summer porphyra sp can cover upper eulittoral shore rock.