Taking the plunge with a new intertidal forum

A discussion forum on intertidal environments is launched today by academics at the University of Southampton to encourage collaboration between all those working on issues related to the zone between high and low water marks.

Staff from the Centre for Environmental Sciences and the School of Ocean and Earth Science have established the Intertidal Environments Forum as a multi-disciplinary discussion forum, with a website to enable easy communication between members.

"The Forum is looking to promote links between groups with an interest in intertidal environments, bringing together people working in industry, research, education, and local government," explained co-founder Dr Malcolm Hudson, from the Centre for Environmental Sciences. "There are a lot of people out there working in closely related fields who until now have been scarcely aware of each other. Collaboration will help everyone to achieve more."

Co-founder Dr Patrick Friend, from the School of Ocean and Earth Science, added: "Intertidal environments are areas with a wide range of different habitats, offering a natural protection mechanism for the coastline from erosion. We hope that the Forum will eventually expand to a national level covering all the issues concerned with such environmentally important zones. Understanding what happens in the intertidal zone and linking interested groups is vitally important, particularly in the south of England with the problems we face associated with rising sea levels."

There are 16 members of the Intertidal Environments Forum as it is launched, including New Forest District Council, Hampshire County Council, English Nature, Associated British Ports Marine Environmental Research, Solent Forum and Chichester Harbour Conservancy, as well as several specialised research groups from within the University of Southampton. These include the Rocky Shore Ecology group from the School of Biological Sciences, the Sediment Geochemistry Group from Southampton Oceanography Centre and the Human Impact group from the Centre for Environmental Sciences.

The Intertidal Environments Forum website will be the main portal for discussion among members. The website is sponsored by ABP Marine Environmental Research, and can be found at: http://www.intertidalforum.org.