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Bedrock and boulders characterised by a dense turf of the red seaweeds Polyides rotunda and/or Furcellaria lumbricalis, often with a dense mat of filamentous brown and green seaweeds including Ectocarpaceae and Cladophora spp. Other red seaweeds presents include Chondrus crispus, Gracilaria gracilis and coralline crusts as well as the odd brown seaweed Chorda filum or Laminaria spp. Associated with these seaweeds are a variety of ascidians including Clavelina lepadiformis, Ascidiella aspersa, Ascidiella scabra and Ciona intestinalis as well as the anemones Anemonia viridis and Actinia equina and the sponge Halichondria panicea. More mobile fauna include the starfish Asterias rubens, the crab Carcinus maenas, the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus, the opossum shrimps Mysidae and the gastropod Littorina littorea. Attached to the rock or cobbles are spirorbid polychaetes and the mussel Mytilus edulis. Please notice that part of this diversity is due to large differences between sites.

Shallow muddy sediments, often with boulders, cobbles and pebbles around the edges of lagoons, or other areas that are exposed to wide salinity variations are unsuitable for colonisation by many species. Such areas may be colonised by a dense blanket of ephemeral green algae such as Ulva spp., Chaetomorpha linum, Cladophora liniformis or Rhizoclonium riparium. This biotope may also contain some red seaweeds, such as Furcellaria lumbricalis, but always at low abundance (compare with IR.LIR.Lag.ProtFur). Amongst the filamentous green algae, grazing molluscs and solitary ascidians may be present. Infauna may typically include Corophium volutator, Baltidrilus costatus, Tubificoides benedeni and other taxa suited for low/variable salinity environments.