Site Code
Country: United Kingdom
Central coordinates: 50.80346523o [50o 48' 12" North], -1.34713401o [1o 20' 49" West]
Administrative region: South East (Isle of Wight, South Hampshire, West Sussex)
Area: 12520 ha
Altitude: 0 - 20
Site Description
The Solent Coast encompasses a major estuarine system on the south coast of England with four coastal plain estuaries (Yar, Medina, King’s Quay Shore, Hamble) and four bar-built estuaries (Newtown Harbour, Beaulieu, Langstone Harbour, Chichester Harbour). The Solent and its inlets are unique in Britain and Europe for their hydrographic regime of four tides each day, and for the complexity of the marine and estuarine habitats present within the area. Sediment habitats within the estuaries include extensive estuarine flats, often with intertidal areas supporting eelgrass Zostera spp. and green algae, sand and shingle spits, and natural shoreline transitions.
Botanical Significance
Noted for stoneworts, vascular plants and habitat interest. The Solent is the only site for smooth cord-grass Spartina alterniflora in the UK and is one of only two sites where significant amounts of small cord-grass S. maritima are found. It is also one of the few remaining sites for Townsend’s cord-grass S. x townsendii and holds extensive areas of common cord-grass Spartina anglica, all four taxa thus occurring here in close proximity. It has additional historical and scientific interest as the site where S. alterniflora was first recorded in the UK (1829) and where S. x townsendii and, later, S. anglica first occurred.
The Solent is a composite site composed of a large number of separate areas of salt meadows (Glauco-Puccinellietalia maritimae), which are notable for being of the ungrazed type and support a range of communities dominated by sea-purslane Atriplex portulacoides, common sea-lavender Limonium vulgare and thrift Armeria maritima. As a whole the site is less truncated by man-made features than other parts of the south coast and shows rare and unusual transitions to freshwater reedswamp and alluvial woodland as well as coastal grassland.
The Solent encompasses a series of Coastal lagoons, including percolation, isolated and sluiced lagoons. The site includes a number of lagoons in the marshes in the Keyhaven – Pennington area, at Farlington Marshes in Chichester Harbour, behind the sea-wall at Bembridge Harbour and at Gilkicker, near Gosport. The lagoons support a diverse fauna including large populations of the nationally rare foxtail stonewort Lamprothamnium papulosum. The area is considered of European importance for stoneworts in Stewart (2004).
Management guidance notes
Notes
Fareham to Gosport Coast; Langstone & Chichester Harbours & Coast; Pagham Harbour; North Solent Coast
Harbour Farm Lagoons, Bembridge
Solent Maritime