Whitecliff Bay and Bembridge Ledges

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Coordinates: 50°40′26″N 1°06′18″W / 50.674°N 1.105°W / 50.674; -1.105
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Whitecliff Bay and Bembridge Ledges
Notification
1955
Location mapNatural England

Whitecliff Bay and Bembridge Ledges is a 131.6-hectare (325-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest that lies around the coastline of the easternmost part of the Isle of Wight from the Bembridge harbour entrance in the north around Foreland to Whitecliff Bay to the south. The site was notified in 1955 for both its biological and geological features.[1]

Geology

Whitecliff Bay and Bembridge Ledges is a

Lower Oligocene and exhibit a nearly complete series of strata from this period, providing evidence of the strongly cyclical nature of sedimentation in this part of the Hampshire Basin.[1] The Wittering Formation and the higher strata of the Bracklesham Group are well exposed in these cliffs, and they provide the type section of the Bracklesham Group.[2][3]

The fossils from twenty-one species of mammal have been identified at Whitecliff Bay;[1] the only other locality in Europe with mammal fauna from this period has a less diverse mammal range. There are also plant fossils, including a sequence of charophyte (freshwater green algae) fossils, which provide good material for correlation with other sites.[1]

Ecology

The site is of interest botanically, with a number of different habitats and a rich marine flora of algae. The cliff is actively eroding, and, on the newly exposed areas,

bramble.[1]

There are a variety of seaweeds in the intertidal and shallow subtidal zones on the foreshore. There are ten species of lobsters and crabs, and the limpet Patella aspera and the snake-locks anemone Anemonia sulcata are at the eastern limits of their ranges. The lagoons have beds of the seagrasses Zostera marina and Zostera angustifolia and have been invaded by the Japanese seaweed Sargassum muticum.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Sheppey Cliffs and Foreshore citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  2. ^ "Bracklesham Group". BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  3. ISBN 978-1-86239-200-7
    .
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