Intertidal saltmarsh and seagrass ecosystems are dominated by highly dynamic processes, the result of which can provide many services of benefit to nature and society; such as flood risk mediation, biodiversity provision and climate change mitigation. These systems are under increasing pressure and threat (e.g. land conversion, altered sediment regimes, climate change), resulting in their degradation and loss. The need, therefore, to understand the drivers behind their structure, function and process is increasingly important especially if desirable ecosystem services are to be preserved. The application of this understanding to potential conservation and restoration of these systems is highly valuable, facilitating best practice conservation methodologies and quantification of potential service loss mitigation or enhanced provision.

This session will bring together researchers of intertidal vegetated ecosystems spanning studies of processes occurring within them (e.g. sediment dynamics, evolution and development, hydrology) to understanding their morphological features (e.g. vegetation structure, micro/macro topography) to service provision measurement (carbon burial, flood mitigation). Further to these topics the way in which predicted changes will affect these systems and the role restoration or conservation is/can/will feature in the future are encouraged.