Species point records from 1990 MNCR Mull of Galloway/Auchencairn sublittoral survey

The Solway Firth straddles the western border between Scotland and England, the southern shores lying in Cumbria, the northern shores in Dumfries and Galloway. The Solway is an area of transition from the characteristically sedimentary coastline and seabed of Cumbria and the north-eastern Irish Sea in the south to the more rocky fiordic coastline of western Scotland. The seabed consists largely of sediments, mostly mobile, with areas of shallow bedrock and boulders adjacent to the coast. The inshore sublittoral zone of the area is generally unspoilt, with few damaging activities. The backing coastland is also mostly unspoilt and semi-natural, predominantly used as pasture grassland for dairy farming. Twenty-six sublittoral sites were surveyed on the open coast covering both rocky and sedimentary substrata. From these sites, 19 habitat types were identified. The survey area was split into two distinct regions by Burrow Head. To the west, where continuous hard substrata occurred, communities were characteristic of open coast areas, with a zonation from upper infralittoral to lower circalittoral. However, turbidity increased from west to east with consequent decreases in algal penetration and, in the east of the survey area, algae extended little deeper than chart datum level. Animal dominated communities were therefore predominant on hard substratum in this eastern region. Habitat diversity was generally low, most sedimentary areas being either mobile medium grained sands, or more stable fine grained sands with a low silt content. Bedrock was mostly upward facing and heavily silted, dominated by erect bryozoans, except around the Mull of Galloway and the Scares, where a greater diversity was encountered. Records currently considered sensitive have been removed from this dataset.

索尔威湾横跨苏格兰与英格兰的西部边界，南部海岸位于坎布里亚郡，北部海岸位于邓弗里斯和加洛韦。索尔威湾是一个过渡区域，从南部坎布里亚郡及东北爱尔兰海特征性的沉积岩海岸线和海底，逐渐过渡到西部苏格兰更为崎岖的峡湾海岸线。海底主要由沉积物组成，大多为流动的，沿海地区附近有浅层基岩和巨砾。该区域的近岸海底区域通常未受破坏，损害活动极少。背景海岸线也大多保持原貌，半自然状态，主要用于乳牛放牧的草地。在开阔海岸线上，对涵盖岩石和沉积基质的26个海底地点进行了调查。从这些地点中，确定了19种栖息地类型。调查区域被伯勒头划分为两个截然不同的区域。在西边，连续的硬质基质出现，群落特征与开阔海岸区域相似，从上海底带到下环海底带存在带状分布。然而，从西向东，浑浊度增加，导致藻类渗透减少，在调查区域的东部，藻类延伸深度不超过海图基准面。因此，在该东部区域的硬基质上，动物主导的群落占主导地位。栖息地多样性普遍较低，大多数沉积区域要么是流动的中粒沙子，要么是更稳定的细粒沙子，含泥量低。基岩大多向上倾斜且严重淤积，主要由直立的海绵动物构成，除了在加洛韦角和斯卡雷斯附近，那里遇到了更多的多样性。目前被认为是敏感的记录已被从该数据集中移除。