Identity:

Offshore (deep) circalittoral habitats with coarse sands and gravel or shell. This habitat may cover large areas of the offshore continental shelf although there is relatively little quantitative data available. Such habitats are quite diverse compared to shallower versions of this habitat and generally characterised by robust infaunal polychaete and bivalve species. Animal communities in this habitat are closely related to offshore mixed sediments and in some areas settlement of Modiolus modiolus larvae may occur and consequently these habitats may occasionally have large numbers of juvenile M. modiolus. In areas where the mussels reach maturity their byssus threads bind the sediment together, increasing stability and allowing an increased deposition of silt leading to the development of the biotope A5.622.