Summary
This publication presents a fully revised version of the
national classification of benthic marine habitats (seashore and
seabed habitats and their associated communities of species) for
Britain and Ireland. It was originally developed by JNCC's Marine
Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) as part of the EC Life
Nature-funded BioMar project (Connor et al. 1997
a, b).
The classification provides a tool to aid the management and
conservation of marine habitats. It has been developed through the
analysis of empirical data sets, the review of other
classifications and scientific literature, and in collaboration
with a wide range of marine scientists and conservation managers.
It is fully compatible with and contributes to the
European EUNIS habitat classification system.
The classification is presented in hierarchical format, and
through a series of habitat matrices. It comprises:
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Level 1
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Environment (marine)
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1
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Level 2
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Broad habitat types
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5
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Level 3
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Habitat complexes
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24
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Level 4
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Biotope complexes
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75
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Levels 5 & 6
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Biotopes and sub-biotopes
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370
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This website contains an introductory section
covering the rationale, uses, overall structure and development
methods of the classification system, as well as a full listing of
newly defined and revised classification types, a detailed
description of each type, distribution maps and, where possible,
colour photographs. A
downloadable version of the classification is
also available, as a series of word documents, images and
spreadsheets.
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IMPORTANT
This classification supersedes versions
97.06 and 03.02.
Users of the classification must ensure
they state which version has been used
in any reports, data interpretation or field
survey.
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This report should be cited as:
DAVID W. CONNOR, JAMES H. ALLEN, NEIL GOLDING, KERRY L. HOWELL,
LOUISE M. LIEBERKNECHT, KATE O. NORTHEN AND JOHNNY B. REKER
(2004)
The Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland
Version 04.05© 2004 Copyright JNCC, Peterborough ISBN 1 861
07561 8 (internet version)
www.jncc.gov.uk/MarineHabitatClassification |