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Marine Habitat Classification


Description of biotope or habitat type

To understand more about what this page is describing, see How to use the classification. See also How to cite.

   Arctic mid bathyal coarse sediment


Physical habitat description

Salinity Full (30-35 ppt)
Wave exposure
Tidal streams
Substratum Coarse sediment
Zone Arctic mid bathyal
Depth Band 600 - 1100 m
Other Features

Download comparative physical and biological data. The comparative tables enable a rapid comparison of the species composition and principal physical characteristics between a given set of biotopes.

Distribution of habitat M.ArMB.Co Arctic mid bathyal coarse sediment

  • Records used to define the biotope (core records)
  • Other records assigned to this biotope, marked as 'certain'
  • Other records assigned to this biotope, marked as 'uncertain'
  • Predicted extent of the level 3 (for sublittoral rock & deep sea) or 4 (for sublittoral sediment) habitat

Point data based on records in the UK Marine Recorder Snapshot. Predicted habitat extent is from UKSeaMap.

Description

Deep-sea coarse sediment has not been sampled widely for infauna so little is currently known about infaunal community structure. Epifauna tend to be sparse mobile species or burrowing fauna such as anemones visible at the surface. Coarse sediment includes unstable pebbles, cobbles, boulders and coral rubble. In the absence of ecological data, coarse sediment habitat can be defined according to Long (2006), which describes the classification's broad sediment types according to the relative proportion of mud, sand and gravel(see http://www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/PDF/GMHM3_Detailed_explanation_of_seabed_sediment_classification.pdf). Note that only small amounts of gravel are required to move the habitat from sand to coarse sediment and only small amounts of mud can move the habitat from coarse to mixed sediment. In the absence of particle size data it can be difficult to reliably distinguish between coarse sediment and mixed sediment. Note that stable pebbles, cobbles and boulders are classed as rock; any rock present on coarse sediment is considered a separate habitat within a mosaic.

Situation

No situation data available.

Temporal variation

No temporal variation data available.

Characterising species

Characterising species data not applicable.

Similar biotopes or habitat types

Not applicable or unknown.


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