Atlantic upper bathyal mixed sediment

Description (English)

Deep-sea mixed sediment has not been sampled widely for infauna so little is currently known about infaunal community structure. Epifauna tend to be sparse mobile species.
In the absence of ecological data, mixed sediment habitat can be defined according to Long (2006), which describes the classification's broad sediment types according to the relative proportion of mud, sand and gravel (see http://www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/PDF/GMHM3_Detailed_explanation_of_seabed_sediment_classification.pdf). Note that only small amounts of gravel are required to move the habitat from mud to mixed sediment and only small amounts of mud can move the habitat from coarse to mixed sediment. In the absence of particle size data it can be difficult to reliably distinguish between coarse sediment and mixed sediment. Note that stable pebbles, cobbles and boulders are classed as rock; any rock present on mixed sediment is considered a separate habitat within a mosaic.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification