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.