This summer, the Sjogras Partnership returned to Orkney to undertake a range of surveys to further develop our understanding of the health and extent of Orkney’s important seagrass meadows.
Between the 19th July and 1st August, Professor Joanne Porter from Heriot Watt University and Dr Elizabeth Lacey from Project Seagrass led their respective teams as part of the annual survey work. In a first for the partnership, this year saw the establishment of ‘sentinel’ sites around the Orkney archipelago.
A sentinel site in the context of monitoring ecological characteristics is a specific location or set of locations chosen to provide long-term, consistent, and representative data about environmental conditions and changes. Sites in Finstown, Tankerness, and Westray were chosen to represent the characteristics of seagrass habitats across the islands. Ongoing monitoring at these sites will enable the partnership to improve our understanding of the dynamics and drivers of seagrass health in Orkney and could help us understand how and why seagrass is changing across Scotland.
Dr Elizabeth Lacey, Senior Science Officer and Scotland Team Lead at Project Seagrass said: “The sentinel sites will help build long-term records of seagrass health, map changes over time, and involve more people in safeguarding this important ecosystem. Collaborative partnerships like this are essential – we each bring unique skills and experiences to the team, which helps us all achieve our shared goal of advancing seagrass conservation.”
Quadrat-based meadow health surveys were undertaken at each site, encompassing a range of measures such as percentage cover of seagrass, the complexities of the seagrass canopy, the number of reproductive shoots present, and epiphyte cover.
These were complemented by a number of methods to map the extent of each seagrass meadow. In the water, the team utilised a remotely controlled boat to capture echosounder data; in the air Dr Calum Hoad undertook drone surveys to capture thousands of images of the seagrass meadows. Regular mapping of the sentinel site seagrass meadows will allow the size and extent of the meadow to be tracked, noting any increases or decreases in cover; which, when coupled with the health parameters during the sentinel sites monitoring, can be used to determine the impacts of disturbances like climate change and coastal development.
Within these sentinel sites, Heriot Watt University PhD candidate Millie Brown undertook work investigating carbon sequestration as part of her SMMR funded scholarship research and MSc project student Alisha Underwood collected samples to research the properties of the sediment associated with seagrass at Finstown and Tankerness.
Professor Joanne Porter of Heriot Watt University said: “This summer in Project Sjogras the team from Heriot Watt Orkney campus worked in collaboration with Dr Elizabeth Lacey and the Project Seagrass team to gather information on the species biodiversity associated with seagrass sediments and seagrass leaves, and carbon sequestration. This new data supports the development of an evidence base for quantifying the Ecosystem Services provided by Orcadian seagrass meadow sentinel sites”
The partnership were pleased to have the opportunity to share their work at the Orkney Research and Innovation Centre, for their Renewables Revolution Open Day. Professor Joanne Porter represented the Sjogras partnership as part of a stand sharing information about the seagrass. In September 2025 Professor Porter presented some of the findings at the Orkney International Science Festival, on behalf of the Project Sjogras team.
The Sjogras project is made possible with the support of Highland Park.