Coastal

The Atlantic coasts also comprise long stretches where mountains and rocky landscapes border the sea. Such landscapes are most characteristic of the Atlantic part of for instance the Iberian Peninsula and the Norwegian coasts, large stretches of Ireland and Scotland and the Faroe Islands, in France along the peninsula of Brittany. Where the sea penetrates into the land in valleys or meets the rivers in estuaries, special landscapes are formed, some with long history and still existing old habitat management. The Spanish rias and the Norwegian fjords are examples of such landscapes. The following habitats occur in this ecosystem: Estuaries, Salicornia and other annuals colonizing mud and sand, Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria ("white dunes"), Fixed coastal dunes with herbaceous vegetation ("grey dunes"), Humid dune slacks, Atlantic salt meadows (Glauco-Puccinellietalia maritimae) (European Environment Agency, Europe’s biodiversity, The Atlantic region - ETC/NPB).