Littoral gravels and sands
Compiled by: Leigh Jones, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Monkstone House, City
Road, Peterborough PE1 IJY, UK.
Derived, in part, from: the UK marine biotope classification (Connor et al.
1997a) and a review undertaken for the UK Marine SACs Project (Elliott et al.1998).
|Europe (EUNIS Nov. 1999)
||Littoral gravels and coarse sands
||Sandflat, free of vegetation
|Britain/Ireland (MNCR BioMar 97.06)
||Littoral gravels and sands
|Sables moyens dunaires
BiocÚnose des sables
Clean gravel and/or sand in the littoral zone (the area between high and low tides)
with a particle diameter range from 16 mm to 0.063 mm; shingle shores comprising mobile
cobbles, pebbles and coarse gravel are also included. The shore and substratum type can
range from steep mobile shores that are typically of coarse material (gravel and coarse
sand), through less steep shores of coarse, medium or fine sand to level sandflats of fine
sand that remain water-saturated throughout the tidal cycle. Mud (particle diameter less
than 0.063 mm) does not exceed 10%, and is usually totally absent.
(from MNCR database in February 1999)
Species composition and biodiversity
Sensitivity to human activities
Conservation and protection status