Orfordness - Shingle Street

General site character

• Tidal rivers, Estuaries, Mud flats, Sand flats, Lagoons (including saltwork basins) (25%)
  
• Salt marshes, Salt pastures, Salt steppes (15%)
  
• Shingle, Sea cliffs, Islets (40%)
  
• Improved grassland (18%)
  
• Other land (including Towns, Villages, Roads, Waste places, Mines, Industrial sites) (2%)
  

Annex I habitats that are a primary reason for selection of this site

• 1150 Coastal lagoons  * Priority feature

  Note: not a marine feature as occur landward of Highest Astronomical Tide Orfordness – Shingle Street encompasses a series of percolation lagoons on the east coast of England, and, together with Benacre to Easton Bavents and The Wash and North Norfolk Coast, forms a significant part of the percolation lagoon resource concentrated in this part of the UK. The lagoons at this site have developed in the shingle bank adjacent to the shore at the mouth of the Ore estuary. The salinity of the lagoons is maintained by percolation through the shingle, although at high tides sea water can overtop the shingle bank. The fauna of these lagoons includes typical lagoon species, such as the cockle Cerastoderma glaucum, the ostracod Cyprideis torosa and the gastropods Littorina saxatilis tenebrosa and Hydrobia ventrosa. The nationally rare starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is also found at the site.

• 1210 Annual vegetation of drift lines

  Orfordness is an extensive shingle spit some 15 km in length and is one of two sites representing Annual vegetation of drift lines on the east coast of England. In contrast to Minsmere to Walberswick Heaths and Marshes, drift-line vegetation occurs on the sheltered, western side of the spit, at the transition from shingle to saltmarsh, as well as on the exposed eastern coast. The drift-line community is widespread on the site and comprises sea beet Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima and orache Atriplex spp. in a strip 2-5 m wide.

• 1220 Perennial vegetation of stony banks

  Orfordness is an extensive shingle structure on the east coast of England and consists of a foreland, a 15 km-long spit and a series of recurves running from north to south on the Suffolk coast. This spit has been selected as it supports some of the largest and most natural sequences in the UK of shingle vegetation affected by salt spray. The southern end of the spit has a particularly fine series of undisturbed ridges, with zonation of communities determined by the ridge pattern. Pioneer communities with sea pea Lathyrus japonicus and false oat-grass Arrhenatherum elatius grassland occur. Locally these are nutrient-enriched by the presence of a gull colony; elsewhere they support rich lichen communities. The northern part of Orfordness has suffered considerable damage from defence-related activities but a restoration programme for the shingle vegetation is underway.

Annex I habitats present as a qualifying feature, but not a primary reason for selection of this site

• Not Applicable

Annex II species that are a primary reason for selection of this site

• Not Applicable

Annex II species present as a qualifying feature, but not a primary reason for site selection

• Not Applicable