MI7 – Eurytherm and euryhaline lagoon biocoenoses

Coastal waters, with their variations in both salinity and depth in relation to marine inputs, temperature and rainfall, belong to this habitat. Although they are in contact with the sea, they are, in any case, sheltered by natural coastlines but sometimes also by artificial embankments, such as those found bordering fish ponds. This is deemed a priority habitat.

CA2 Vegetation on brackish, loamy-clayey soils with summer desiccation and diploid glassworts

Being annual species that occupy bare soils,  pioneer glasswort (Salicornia sp.) vegetation colonizes soils where other species find it difficult to establish. Within this habitat are included both glasswort species that prefer strong summer drying and those usally found on saturated soils that do not dry out.

CA9 Vegetation on salty soils with succulent, suffruticose species

These are vegetational communities dominated by small, fleshy, suffruticose species of the Chenopodiaceae that are able to tolerate severe summer droughts and high salt concentrations.

CA10 Vegetation on sandy-loamy soils, rich in nitrates with sea couch grass Elytrigia atherica (= Agropyron pungens)

This is a habitat confined to brackish and salty environments and is characterized by the presence of tall grasses, among most common being the sea couch grasses Elytrigia repens and E. atherica. It often represents a transition stage between the natural sub-halophilous vegetation and the scrubland of False Indigo Amorpha fruticosa.

UC1 Freshwater helophytic vegetation dominated by Common Reed Phragmites australis

The UC1 habitat represents the communities dominated by Common Reed Phragmites australis which in the most typical cases forms the belts that separate aquatic vegetation from shrub and arboreal habitats. The reed is a species with a rather broad ecology but in this habitat is represented by contexts in which the soil is almost always saturated with fresh water, with a period of submersion. Although it is not a habitat of Community Interest, it is nevertheless a very important one for many species of animals.

UC2 Helophytic vegetation of brackish water, dominated by Common Reed Phragmites australis

Brackish reedbeds represent a rather unusual habitat which is distinguished from the freshwater one both for its floristic composition (Common Reed dominates and is accompanied by halophilous species such as Sea Rush Juncus maritimus, Shrubby Glasswort Arthrocnemum fruticosum and Golden Samphire Inula crithmoides) as well as for the lower vitality of the reeds themselves. With a less bright and rather yellowish colour moreover, it never reaches a luxuriant vegetative state even though a high percentage of individual plants bloom.