ME6-2 - Vase du bathyal supérieur en Atlantique

Atlantic upper bathyal mud

Classification des habitats EUNIS 2022

Descriptif de l'habitat

Deep-sea mud sediments have a diverse infaunal community dominated by polychaetes. Epifauna tend to be sparse, mobile species, but aggregations of erect fauna such as glass sponges, sea pens and soft corals can occur.
In the absence of ecological data, mud 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 p3 of UKSeaMap 2010 technical report 3 http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/UKSeaMap2010_TechnicalReport_3_Substrate2.pdf). It can be difficult to reliably distinguish between mud and sand using video data only. Note that muddy sand sediments are classed as mud if the mud content is great enough.

Bibliographie

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity 2022. EUNIS marine habitat classification 2022 including crosswalks. Table Excel. (Source)