Cernydd Carmel

General site character

• Inland water bodies (Standing water, Running water) (0.5%)
  
• Bogs, Marshes, Water fringed vegetation, Fens (4%)
  
• Heath, Scrub, Maquis and Garrigue, Phygrana (19%)
  
• Dry grassland, Steppes (4.5%)
  
• Humid grassland, Mesophile grassland (16%)
  
• Improved grassland (26%)
  
• Broad-leaved deciduous woodland (16.5%)
  
• Inland rocks, Screes, Sands, Permanent Snow and ice (11%)
  
• Other land (including Towns, Villages, Roads, Waste places, Mines, Industrial sites) (2.5%)
  

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

• 3180 Turloughs  * Priority feature

  Pant-y-Llyn turlough occupies a small depression on the northern perimeter of the South Wales Coalfield at Cernydd Carmel. This depression represents a glacial channel formed along the Betws Fault where displacement has brought Carboniferous limestone into contact with older Devonian rock. The hydrological regime of the waterbody is linked to local groundwater behaviour within the limestone. The basin fills to a depth of about 3 m during late autumn and remains full until the following summer when it empties completely, thus reflecting the characteristic behaviour of turloughs. There are no surface drainage channels and a swallow hole is located at the northern end of the basin. The basin floor is covered by bryophytes (mainly Fontinalis antipyretica and Drepanocladus aduncus) and herbaceous swamp (water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile and bladder-sedge Carex vesicaria) communities and is surrounded by W3 Salix cinerea – Galium palustre woodland. Within the willow Salix carr, there is a further zonation among the epiphytic bryophytes, with a well-defined Fontinalis community on the lower parts of the trees, which are subject to immersion. The invertebrate fauna is characteristic of seasonal standing waters with aquatic beetles Coleoptera acting as the most diverse group of predators on a microinvertebrate community dominated by relatively large Cladocera and Copepoda.

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

• 4010 Northern Atlantic wet heaths with Erica tetralix
• 4030 European dry heaths
• 7110 Active raised bogs  * Priority feature
• 9180 Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes and ravines  * Priority feature

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