| Key nature conservation features of Local Significance |
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109 Solent and Poole Bay
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Solent and Poole Bay is of international importance for the range of marine, coastal and maritime habitats, communities and species present. It is an area of transition between the Lusitanian (warm temperate) and Boreal (cold temperate) provinces with fauna and flora of both being present. Despite its heavy industrial and recreational use, the whole area includes some very important natural and undisturbed lengths of coast, with unusual examples of natural transitions from marine to coastal and terrestrial habitats. Major features include the large, shallow harbours of Poole, Christchurch, Portsmouth, Langstone, Chichester and Newtown on the Isle of Wight. Extensive areas of intertidal mudflats, saltmarshes and shingle habitats support national and internationally important numbers of migratory wildfowl and waders and resident seabird colonies. The area supports the highest density of brackish water lagoons in the country (15% of the national resource) which support a number of rare, specialist plants and animals. Extensive limestone ledges at Bembridge represent one of the most easterly rocky shores along the English Channel. The coastline exposes a sequence of Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks of international importance.
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Natural Area profile available - Size 355.5 kb
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