For its land area the Bristol Region has an exceptionally high number of habitats. It is for this reason that has led to Bristol's biodiversity being so high. The diverse range of climatic conditions generated from its many elevations is what has created so many micro climates and therefore the conditions covering the exact requirements for so many species to thrive.

Habitats aims to map out and give a visual picture of all of Bristol's habitats. Divided into land areas, open / base habitats and the more intricate sub habitats which follow.

Classification as always is extremely difficult (no two things quite fit) especially when the thing your trying to classify changes so quickly that it's never the same from one year to the next.

My classification of Habitats (early stages of development)

Cultivated land / disturbed and recreational:

• Allotments
• Arable fields
• Cemeteries / Churchyards
• Parks and Commons
• Gardens
• Golf Courses
• Playing Fields and Sports Grounds

Water Courses:

• Ditches, Dykes and Rhynes
• Rivers, Streams and Canals
• Ponds, Lakes and Reservoirs

Exposed and bare:

• Cliffs
• Rock faces
• Walls
• Rocky outcrops

Land Forms

• Mountains
• Hills
• Gorges
• Valley's
• Ravines
• Caves
• Estuaries
• Floodplains
• Mud Flats

created from the bi-product of human activities:

• Quarries
• Gravel Pits
• Wasteland
• Field Margins
• Railway Banks
• Roadside Verges
• Spoil Heaps

Created by vegetation type at the different stages of plant succession, management and conditions.

• Sand Dunes
• Scrub
• Copses
• Woodland
• Grassland
• Hedgerows
• Marshland
• Meadow
• Heaths
• Fens
• Peat

Each Habitat then goes into more detail

Woodland:

• Ancient Woodland
• Secondary Woodland
• Woodland Edge
• Woodland Rides
• Woodland Glades
• Woodland Coppiced

Meadows:

• Species Rich
• Species Poor
• Pasture
• Coastal
• Chalk / Limestone Downland
• Acidic