Arctic lower bathyal sand

Description (English)

Deep-sea sand sediments have a diverse infaunal community dominated by polychaetes. Epifauna tend to be sparse, mobile species, or burrowing fauna such as anemones and brittlestars visible at the surface.
In the absence of ecological data, sand 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 small amounts of gravel with sand can move the habitat from sand to coarse sediment. Also note that Folk muddy sand sediments are classed as mud habitat if the mud content is great enough to support species usually associated with mud. In the absence of particle size data it can be difficult to reliably distinguish between mud and sand.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification