Stour Estuary

Stour Estuary
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Area of Search Essex
Suffolk
Grid reference TM 180330
Interest Biological
Geological
Area 2,523 hectares
Notification 2003
Location map Magic Map

Stour Estuary is a 2,523 hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches from Manningtree to Harwich in Essex and Suffolk.[1][2] It is also an internationally important wetland Ramsar site,[3] a Special Protection Area[4] and a Nature Conservation Review site.[5] It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,[6] and there are Geological Conservation Review sites in Wrabness,[7] Stutton,[8][9] and Harwich[10] Part of the site is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,[11] and a small area is Wrabness Nature Reserve, a Local Nature Reserve[12] managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.[13]

The estuary is nationally important for thirteen species of wintering wildfowl and three on autumn passage, for coastal saltmarsh, sheltered muddy shores, two scarce marine invertebrates, scarce plants and three geological sites. Birds include redshank, black-tailed godwit and dunlin, and there are nationally important sponges, ascidians and red algae. Harwich has thirty ash layers dating to the Eocene Harwich Formation and the succeeding London Clay. Wrabness has the most complete succession of ashes showing the importance of volcanism in southern England in the early Eocene. Stutton has fossils dating to the mid-Pleistocene, including extinct mammals such as straight-tusked elephants, mammoths and giant deer.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Stour Estuary citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "Map of Stour Estuary". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "Designated and Proposed Ramsar sites in the UK and Overseas Territories & Crown Dependencies". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  4. ↑ "Stour and Orwell Estuaries". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Ratcliffe, Derek (1977). A Nature Conservation Review. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780521214032.
  6. ↑ "Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2013 - 2018" (PDF). Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB. p. 76. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  7. ↑ "Wrabness (Tertiary Palaeobotany)". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  8. ↑ "Stutton (Pleistocene Vertebrata)". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "Stutton (Quaternary of East Anglia)". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  10. ↑ "Harwich (Tertiary Palaeobotany)". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  11. ↑ "Stour Estuary". Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  12. ↑ "Wrabness". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  13. ↑ "Wrabness Nature Reserve". Essex Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
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Coordinates: 51°57′14″N 1°10′26″E / 51.954°N 1.174°E / 51.954; 1.174

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