Project

The coastline of Great Britain and Ireland supports an important component of biodiversity with over 650 species of red, green and brown seaweeds. Seaweeds remain an under-recorded group, yet there is an increasing need for good quality, verifiable data on past and present species occurrence to inform on issues such as environmental change, potential pressures from harvesting, loss of habitats and increases in non-native species.

For more information about seaweeds visit the Natural History Museum, London, website.

Museum specimens can provide crucial evidence that a species occurred at a particular place and time. This project aims to capture specimen data from UK national and regional museums in order to generate information on seaweed distribution patterns.

The project will prioritize gathering specimen data of particular interest to biodiversity and conservation research such as: non-native seaweeds, species of conservation concern and species which may be potential indicators of environmental change. 

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith