Biodiversity & Conservation

For a full description of this biotope including characterizing species, distribution, survey information and references visit JNCC

Permanently low salinity muds or peaty muddy sands with some gravel which supports Phragmites australis reed beds. These reed beds are often found in enclosed water bodies influenced by freshwater inflow and may have notable quantities of decaying reed material. The substratum may be mixtures of mud, peaty mud, sand and some gravel. Filamentous green algae and charophytes such as Lamprothamnium papulosum and Chara aspera may also be found in association with this biotope as well as a the freshwater quillwort Myriophyllum spp. The infaunal component of this biotope is poorly known. This biotope is further described as NVC S4 (Rodwell, 1995). (Information taken from the Marine Biotope Classification for Britain and Ireland, Version 97.06: Connor et al., 1997a, b).

The ecology of Phragmites dominated reed beds has been well studied and has an extensive literature. The following review summarizes some of the major papers, reviews and texts to which the reader should refer for further detail (e.g. Haslam, 1972; Ranwell, 1972; Haslam, 1978; Fuller, 1982; Mook & van der Toorn, 1982; van der Toorn & Mook, 1982; Fojt & Foster, 1992; Ward, 1992; Rodwell, 1995; Hawke & José, 1996). An extensive literature review is given by EUREED (1999). The following review emphasizes information from coastal, estuarine or brackish water habitats.