Habitat point records from 1970 Ridley north-west Scotland sublittoral photographic survey

Gordon Ridley is a lecturer is photography at Glasgow University and also a professional underwater photographer. It was felt that it would be of value for the NCC to analyse his considerable underwater slide collection pertaining to north-west Scotland. the area for which slides were investigated is from Loch Fyne, near Inverary (NR 9080) in the south, to Whiten Head, east of Cape Wrath (NC 500 686) in the north and extends as far west as St Kilda. Slides from 16 sites were investigated, some 534 slides in total. Copies were made for the NCC. The species present at each site are summarised in tabular form with detailed annotated species lists in seperate tables. In these lists details of substratum, abundance and association with other species is given. A general description of each site in terms of habitats and communities present is given where enough slides were available. It was possible to get a good idea of the main features of each site and the species present. Of particular interest was the occurrence of a distinctive community - the Dendrodoa grossularia/Clathrina coriacea community - present at/near Cape Wrath. Another recognisable community that occurs in sounds exposed to very strong tidal streams is the Tubularia indivisa - Halichondria panicea community. Some photographs from St Kilda show large areas of sloping rock covered by T. indivisa and a yellow encrusting sponge that cannot be identified from the slides. Species of particular interest were Parazoanthus anguicomus recorded at St Kilda and Whiten Head, which although not rare is occasionally recorded around Scotland and Protanthea simplex only recently discovered in Great Britain, but now with several records from the coast of west Scotland. Records currently considered sensitive have been removed from this dataset.戈登·里德利（Gordon Ridley）为格拉斯哥大学摄影学讲师，同时亦是专业水下摄影师。相关方认为，由国家海岸委员会 (National Conservation Council) 对其馆藏的大量涉及苏格兰西北部地区的水下幻灯片藏品开展分析工作，具备较高学术与应用价值。本次研究涉及的幻灯片拍摄区域南起因弗拉里附近的菲恩湖（Loch Fyne，NR 9080），北至沃思角东侧的怀特黑德（Whiten Head，NC 500 686），向西延伸至圣基尔达（St Kilda）。研究共对16个采样点的总计约534张幻灯片进行了检视，并为NCC制作了副本。各采样点的现存物种以表格形式汇总，同时另行编制带详细注释的物种列表表格。在上述物种列表中，将标注基底类型、物种丰度以及与其他物种的共生关联等细节。当幻灯片样本量足够时，将针对各采样点的栖息地与现存群落展开一般性描述，借此可清晰掌握各采样点的核心特征与当地物种组成。尤为值得关注的是，在沃思角及附近区域发现了一处特色群落——醋色海鞘（Dendrodoa grossularia）/革质白枝海绵（Clathrina coriacea）群落。另有一类见于受强潮流冲击的水道中的可识别群落，即细管螅（Tubularia indivisa）-厚皮海绵（Halichondria panicea）群落。圣基尔达地区的部分影像资料显示，大片倾斜岩礁被细管螅（Tubularia indivisa）与一种无法通过幻灯片鉴定的黄色包壳海绵所覆盖。值得重点关注的物种包括：在圣基尔达与怀特黑德记录到的蛇形副海葵（Parazoanthus anguicomus），该物种虽非稀有物种，但在苏格兰周边海域仅偶有记录；以及仅于近期才在英国境内被发现的单纹原海葵（Protanthea simplex），目前在苏格兰西海岸已有多笔观测记录。当前被认定为敏感的物种记录已从本数据集中移除。