2011 Kent Wildlife Trust Thanet intertidal monitoring survey

This study has provided much of the baseline information for monitoring the marine biotopes and associated fauna and flora at sites along the 23 km stretch of coast. Fowler and Tittley (1993) reviewed the importance of coastal chalk cave and cliff habitats in Britain. Their extent in Thanet was described and mapped by Tittley (1985) and this provides an important baseline for comparison. The structure and composition of the associated algal communities was analysed by Tittley and Shaw (1980). Since 1997 additional coastal biotope mapping has been undertaken in the Thanet coast cSAC between Walpole Bay and Foreness Point (Anon., 1998). An appraisal in 2004 looked at the occurrence and impact of the non-native alga Sargassum muticum in Thanet (Vahid, 2004). More recently, studies have been undertaken on the impact of non-native species with particular emphasis on Crassostrea gigas (McKnight, 2009 and 2011).