The Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland (version 04.05)

The marine habitat classification for Britain and Ireland provides a tool to aid the management and conservation of marine habitats. It is one of the most comprehensive marine benthic classification systems currently in use, and 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.

This website shows the 04.05 version of the habitat classification, including the biotope descriptions, the search pages and expandable hierarchy. The downloadable documents for the classification system are available here.

Classification Update

Two areas of the classification, the offshore coarse sediments, particularly the circalittoral coarse and mixed sediments, and the deep-sea bed are currently being updated. When the classification was first developed these areas had insufficient data to define biotopes. Now new data means it is possible for us to begin to define biotopes for these regions. These changes will be applied to the national marine habitat classification (by January 2010), and eventually incorporated into the European habitat classification scheme (EUNIS).

The classification 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 JNCC, Peterborough
ISBN 1 861 07561 8 (internet version)
www.jncc.gov.uk/MarineHabitatClassification