Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (CBESS) percentage cover of plant species on salt marsh sites at Morecambe Bay and Essex

The dataset comprises of percentage plant cover by species observed by eye in a 1metre (m) x 1m quadrat. Measurements were recorded at six salt marsh sites at four spatial scales: 1 metre (m) (the minimal sampling unit) nested within a hierarchy of increasing scales of 1-10 m, 10-100 m and 100-1000 m. Three of the sites were in Morecambe Bay, North West England and three of the sites were in Essex, South East England. Plant cover was measured during the winter and summer of 2013 for all six sites. This data was collected as part of Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (CBESS): NE/J015644/1. The project was funded with support from the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) programme. BESS is a six-year programme (2011-2017) funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as part of the UK's Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/90bdf4ff-03d9-4aa4-bcad-5139863ab188