Identity:

Medium-coarse sands with gravel, shells, pebbles and cobbles on moderately exposed coasts may support populations of the slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata with ascidians and anemones. C. fornicata is common in this biotope though not as abundant as in the muddier estuarine biotope A5.422 to which this is related. Anemones such as Urticina felina and Alcyonium digitatum and ascidians such as Styela clava are typically found in this biotope. Bryozoans such as Flustra foliacea are also found along with polychaetes such as Lanice conchilega. Little information is available with regard the infauna of this biotope but given the nature of the sediment the infaunal communities are liable to resemble those in biotopes from A5.1 and subunits. As with A5.444 this biotope could be considered a superficial or epibiotic overlay but more data is required to support this.