Habitat list

Browse available information on habitats (as biotopes) and their sensitivity to man-made pressures.  This simplified list is based on the Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland v22.04 and divided into the major habitat types and habitat complexes used in the classification. Please note habitats are listed using their v22.04 biotopes names. 

 = MarESA review.    = MarLIN review.

Habitat listings

Maritime cliffs and slopes
 Yellow and grey lichens on supralittoral rock
 Prasiola stipitata on nitrate-enriched supralittoral or littoral fringe rock
Intertidal rock
 
Blue mussel and barnacle dominated rock
 
Brown and red seaweed dominated rock
 
Tide-swept brown seaweeds
 
Brown seaweed and barnacle dominated rock
 
Underboulder communities (intertidal)
 
Brown seaweed and piddocks on soft rock
 
Peat and clay communities
 
Brown seaweed dominated rock
 
Brown seaweed dominated estuarine rock
 
Sea loch egg wrack beds
 
Blue mussel and brown seaweed dominated rock
Features of intertidal rock
 
Rockpools
 
Black lichen covered rock
 
Intertidal cave and overhangs
 
Intertidal vertical chalk
 
Ephemeral green and red seaweed communities
Intertidal chalk communities
 Blidingia spp. on vertical littoral fringe soft rock
 Ulothrix flacca and Urospora spp. on freshwater-influenced vertical littoral fringe soft rock
Intertidal sediment
 
Intertidal coarse sediment (gravels, shingle, and pebble ) shore
 
Intertidal sands
 
Intertidal mudflats
 
Intertidal mixed sediment
 
Ephemeral seaweeds on unstable mixed sediment
Seagrass beds (intertidal)
 Zostera noltii beds in littoral muddy sand
Intertidal biogenic reefs
 
Honeycomb worm reefs
 
Blue mussel beds (intertidal)
Subtidal rock (infralittoral)
 
Blue mussel beds (infralittoral)
 
Kelp dominated rock
 
Sediment scoured and disturbed kelps and seaweeds on rock
 
Kelps and red seaweed communities
 
Underboulder communities (subtidal)
 
Subtidal kelp and piddocks on soft rock
 
Tide-swept kelp communities
 
Silted kelp dominated communities
 
Estuarine rock communities (subtidal)
 
Saline lagoon communities (on rock)
 
Low or variable salinity, faunal communities on rock
Features of subtidal rock (infralittoral)
 
Subtidal surge gullies and caves
Subtidal rock (circalittoral)
 
Deep sponge communities
 
Blue mussel beds (circalittoral)
 
Tide-swept animal communities
 
Animal turf, sponge and sea anemone dominated rock
 
Echinoderm and encrusting species dominated rock
 
Ross worm on rock
 
Subtidal soft rock, peat, and clay communities
 
Green crenella beds
 
Sponges on variable salinity rock
 
Brachiopod and sea squirt dominated communities
Features of subtidal rock (circalittoral)
 
Subtidal caves and overhangs
Subtidal sediment
 
Subtidal coarse sediment (cobble, pebble, gravel, coarse sand)
 
Subtidal sands and muddy sands
 
Subtidal muds
 
Subtidal mixed sediments
 
Maerl beds
 
Kelps and seaweeds on sublittoral sediment
 
Saline lagoon communities (on sediment)
Subtidal plant dominated sediments
 
Reduced salinity pondweed communities
 
Common reed beds
Seagrass beds (subtidal)
 Ruppia maritima in reduced salinity infralittoral muddy sand
 Zostera marina beds on lower shore or infralittoral clean or muddy sand
Subtidal biogenic reefs
 
Honeycomb worm crusts
 
Ross worm reefs
 
Serpulid aggregations
 
Horse mussel beds
 
Blue mussel beds (on subtidal sediment)
Cold-water coral reef
 Lophelia reefs
Features of sublittoral sediment
 Bubbling reefs in the aphotic zone
 Seeps and vents in sublittoral sediments
Deep-sea bed
 
Arctic mid bathyal
 
Atlanto-Arctic upper bathyal
 
Arctic lower bathyal
 
Atlantic upper abyssal
 
Atlantic lower bathyal
 
Atlantic mid bathyal
 
Atlantic upper bathyal