Biodiversity & Conservation

Styela gelatinosa and other solitary ascidians on very sheltered deep circalittoral muddy sediment

SS.SMu.OMu.StyPse

<i>%Styela gelatinosa%</i> and other solitary ascidians on very sheltered deep circalittoral muddy sediment
Distribution map

SS.SMu.OMu.StyPse recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

  • UK_BAP

Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland

Recorded only in the deep water of Loch Goil, west coast of Scotland.

Habitat preferences

Temperature range preferences - No information found

Water clarity preferences - No information found

Limiting Nutrients - No information found

Other preferences - See additional information.

Additional information

The biotope occurs in an area with terrigenous debris that most likely provide a hard substratum on which large solitary sea squirts can settle and grow in conditions that experience no wave action and only weak tidal flows. The presence of suitable settlement surfaces may be essential to the development of the community which has not been recorded in other areas of the Clyde sea lochs despite extensive sampling from studies undertaken by the Scottish Marine Biological Association and now the University Marine Biology Station based on Cumbrae (for instance, Allen, 1953a).

This review can be cited as follows:

Hiscock, K. 2002. Styela gelatinosa and other solitary ascidians on very sheltered deep circalittoral muddy sediment. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 22/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/habitatpreferences.php?habitatid=274&code=2004>