Guide to habitats used in APIS

In the search by habitat/pollutant pages of APIS we have provided summary information on air pollution impacts for a range of habitats.  The habitat categories used are approximately based on Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Broad Habitats.   There are some instances where we have deviated from this, for example, where a particular component of a broad habitat justified an individual record.  In some instances we have used different nomenclature from the BAP Broad Habitats to simplify the search process.  Marine habitats have been excluded as they don’t tend to be sensitive to air pollution impacts or are dominated by other sources of inputs. Whilst the correspondence with Annex I and BAP is presented in the table below, in some cases there may be very little information on responses to air pollutants of some of the habitats types, particularly rare ones

For some pollutant types (heavy metals, VOCs, halogens, dusts and POPs) records are confined to six broad ecosystem types as less information is available at the detailed habitat level for these pollutants. 

This table relates the habitat categories and broad ecosystem types used in APIS to BAP broad and priority habitats as well as the Habitats Directive (Annex 1 habitats occurring in the UK).

APIS Habitat

APIS broad ecosystem

Habitats Directive Annex 1

BAP (priority habitats and broad habitats in bold)

Acid grassland

Grassland
  • Species-rich Nardus grassland, on siliceous substrates in mountain areas (and submountain areas in continental Europe) (6230) (considered acidic in European and calcareous in UK)
  • Inland dunes with open Corynephorus and Agrostis grasslands 2330
  • Acid grassland
  • Lowland dry acid grassland

Arable & Horticultural

Arable habitats

n/a
  • Arable and horticultural
  • Arable field margins

Bogs

Bogs, wetland and heath
  • Active raised bogs (7110)
  • Blanket bogs (7130)
  • Degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration (7120)
  • Depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion (7150) (overlaps)
  • Bogs
  • Blanket bog
  • Lowland raised bog

Broadleaved, Mixed and Yew Woodland

Woodland and hedgerow
  • Sub-Atlantic and medio-European oak or oak-hornbeam forests of the Carpinion betuli (9160)
  • Old acidophilous oak woods with Quercus robur on sandy plains (9190)
  • Old sessile oak woods with Ilex and Blechnum in the British Isles (91A0)
  • Atlantic acidophilous beech forests with Ilex and sometimes also Taxus in the shrublayer (Quercion robori-petraeae or Ilici-Fagenion) (9120)
  • Asperulo-Fagetum beech forests (9130)
  • Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes and ravines (9180)
  • Taxus baccata woods of the British Isles (91J0)
  • Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (91E0)
  • Bog woodland (91D0) (overlaps)

 

  • Broadleaved, mixed and yew woodland
  • Upland oakwood
  • Lowland wood-pasture and parkland
  • Lowland beech and yew woodland
  • Upland mixed ashwoods
  • Wet Woodland
  • Upland birchwoods

Calcareous grassland

Grassland
  • Alpine and subalpine calcareous grasslands (6170)
  • Semi-natural dry grasslands and scrubland facies: on calcareous substrates (Festuco-Brometalia) (6210)
  • Semi-natural dry grasslands and scrubland facies: on calcareous substrates (Festuco-Brometalia) (important orchid sites) (6211)
  • Species-rich Nardus grassland, on siliceous substrates in mountain areas (and submountain areas in continental Europe) (6230)
  • Calcareous grassland
  • Lowland calcareous grassland
  • Upland calcareous grassland

Coastal and Floodplain Grazing Marsh

Grassland

n/a
  • Improved grassland
  • Coastal and floodplain grazing marsh

Coastal saltmarsh

Coastal and rocky habitats
  • Atlantic salt meadows (Glauco-Puccinellietalia maritimae) (1330)
  • Inland salt meadows (1340)
  • Mediterranean and thermo-Atlantic halophilous scrubs (Sarcocornetea fruticosi) (1420)
  • Spartina swards (1320)
  • Salicornia and other annuals colonising mud and sand (1310)
  • Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide (1140)
  • Littoral sediment
  • Coastal saltmarsh
  • Intertidal Mudflats 
  • Seagrass beds 
  • Sheltered muddy gravels
  • Peat and clay exposures

Coniferous woodland

Woodland and hedgerow
  • Caledonian forest (91C0)

 

  • Coniferous woodland
  • Native pine woodlands

Dunes, Shingle & Machair

Coastal and rocky habitats
  • Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria ('white dunes') (2120)
  • Embryonic shifting dunes (2110)
  • Fixed dunes with herbaceous vegetation ('grey dunes') (2130)
  • Decalcified fixed dunes with Empetrum nigrum (2140)
  • Atlantic decalcified fixed dunes (Calluno-Ulicetea) (2150)
  • Dunes with Hippophae rhamnoides (2160)
  • Dunes with Salix repens ssp. argentea (Salicion arenariae) (2170)
  • Humid dune slacks (2190)
  • Coastal dunes with Juniperus spp (2250)
  • Machairs (21A0)
  • Annual vegetation of drift lines (1210)
  • Perennial vegetation of stony banks (1220)
  • Supralittoral sediment
  • Coastal sand dunes
  • Coastal Vegetated Shingle
  • Machair

Dwarf Shrub Heath

Bogs, wetland and heath
  • Temperate Atlantic wet heaths with Erica ciliaris and Erica tetralix (4020)
  • European dry heaths (4030)
  • Northern Atlantic wet heaths with Erica tetralix (4010)
  • Dry Atlantic coastal heaths with Erica vagans (4040)
  • Dwarf Shrub Heath
  • Lowland heathland
  • Upland heathland

Fen, Marsh and Swamp

Bogs, wetland and heath
  • Alkaline fens (7230)
  • Transition mires and quaking bogs (7140)
  • Petrifying springs with tufa formation (7220)
  • Calcareous fens with Cladium mariscus and species of the Caricion davallianae (7210)
  • Molinia meadows on calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (6410)
  • Alpine pioneer formations of the Caricion bicoloris-atrofuscae (7240)
  • Fen, marsh and swamp
  • Upland Flushes, Fens and Swamps
  • Lowland Fens
  • Purple moor grass and rush pastures 
  • Reedbeds

Hedgerows

Woodland and hedgerow

n/a
  • Boundary and linear features (part)
  • Ancient and/or species-rich hedgerows

Improved grassland

Arable habitats

n/a
  • Improved grassland (part)
  • Coastal and floodplain grazing marsh

Inland Rock & Scree

Coastal and rocky habitats
  • Limestone pavements (8240)
  • Siliceous scree of the montane to snow levels (Androsacetalia alpinae and Galeopsietalia ladani) (8110)
  • Calcareous and calcshist screes of the montane to alpine levels (Thlaspietea rotundifolii) (8120)
  • Siliceous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation (8220)
  • Calcareous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation (8210)
  • Calaminarian grasslands of the Violetalia calaminariae (6130)
  • Hydrophilous tall herb fringe communities of plains and of the montane to alpine levels (6430)
  • Inland rock
  • Inland Rock Outcrop and Scree Habitats
  • Calaminarian Grasslands
  • Open Mosiac Habitats on Previously Developed Land
  • Limestone pavements

Maritime Cliff and Slopes

Coastal and rocky habitats
  • Vegetated sea cliffs of the Atlantic and Baltic coasts (1230)
  • Supralittoral rock (part)
  • Maritime cliff and slopes

Montane Habitats

Bogs, wetland and heath
  • Alpine and Boreal heaths (4060)
  • Sub-Arctic Salix spp. scrub (4080)
  • Siliceous alpine and boreal grasslands (6150)
  • Montane habitats
  • Mountain heaths and willow scrub

Neutral Grassland

Grassland
  • Lowland hay meadows (Alopecurus pratensis, Sanguisorba officinalis) (6510)
  • Mountain hay meadows (6520)
  • Inland salt meadows (1340)
  • Neutral grassland
  • Lowland meadows
  • Upland hay meadows

Rivers and streams

Freshwater
  • Water courses of plain to montane levels with the Ranunculion fluitantis and Callitricho-Batrachion vegetation (3260)
  • Rivers and streams
  • Rivers

Standing Open Water and Canals

Freshwater
  • Oligotrophic to mesotrophic standing waters with vegetation of the Littorelletea uniflorae and/or of the Isoëto-Nanojuncetea (3130)
  • Oligotrophic waters containing very few minerals of sandy plains (Littorelletalia uniflorae) (3110)
  • Hard oligo-mesotrophic waters with benthic vegetation of Chara spp (3140)
  • Natural eutrophic lakes with Magnopotamion or Hydrocharition-type vegetation (3150)
  • Turloughs (3180)
  • Mediterranean temporary ponds (3170)
  • Natural dystrophic lakes and ponds (3160)
  • Standing open water and canals
  • Mesotrophic lakes
  • Eutrophic standing waters
  • Aquifer fed naturally fluctuating water bodies
  • Ponds
  • Oligotrophic and Dystrophic Lakes

Wood-Pasture & Parkland

Woodland and hedgerow

n/a
  • Broadleaved, mixed and yew woodland (part)
  • Lowland wood-pasture and parkland