A Deep-sea Section for the Marine Habitat Classification of Britain and Ireland

This report has been produced to accompany the release of the JNCC Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland Version 15.03 which has been published on the JNCC website Version 15.03 of the JNCC Classification replicates the previous Version 04.05 (Connor et al 2004), which covers the littoral zone to the deep - circalittoral zone (<200 m as a rule of thumb), but adds a new deep - sea section. This report describes the process by which the deep - sea section was developed, defines categories for each characterising variable used and discusses why they were selected, and outlines the final full structure of the deep - sea section. The deep - sea section has been added to the classification hierarchy 2 and full deep - sea habitat descriptions are available by selecting the habitat name from this page. As well as reviewing this report, users of Version 15.03 should refer to Connor et al (2004) which provides more general information about the background behind the classification, how the shallower section was developed, and how to use the classification.