Extraits

Muddy sand shores LS3

This category includes shores where most of the sand is medium or fine (<1 mm in diameter) and where muds (the silt/clay fraction) make up 10-30% of the sediment. Muddy sand usually occurs as gently sloping flats in sheltered areas and these remain water-saturated throughout the tidal cycle. Characteristic components of the fauna include communities of lugworms (Arenicola marina) and bivalve molluscs (particularly Macoma balthica and Cerastoderma edule). Mudflats may also support beds of eelgrasses (Zostera spp.), vascular plants that stabilise sediments and provide a colonising surface for other marine species. Muddy sand shores frequently occur at the seaward edge of salt marshes and may support open or discontinuous stands of cord-grasses (Spartina spp.) and glassworts (Salicornia spp.). Dense stands of any of these plants should be considered under lower salt marsh - CM1. At low tide, any channels that remain occupied by water, including estuarine channels with freshwater, should be considered under sublittoral sediments.