Marine Biodiversity Data Portal - NI

The Burnfoot, North Coast.

[Site list for year 1984]

Survey number: 555 Event number: 19840925/21 Date: 1984-09-25 GPS: 55.21000,-6.58000. Depth: 3.5 to 0.2 m. [ View map ]

Site Description: Transect site A (25.9.84) is in a boulder bay, bounded to the west by a low limestone outcrop and a sandy gully, and to the east by igneous rock outcrops at the base of a cliff. The coastal backing is moderate cliff. Boulders towards low water are about 1m high. They become smaller and further apart towards the upper shore. Pebbles and coarse sand lie between the lower shore boulders and bedrock between the upper shore boulders. The bedrock is mostly composed of igneous rock, but there are some areas of limestone. The boulder surfaces are patellobarnacle dominated in the intertidal region, with fucoids growing between the boulders. Patches of Audouinella turf occurred throughout the intertidal region. The site was revisited on 9.4.87 for two hours. Little had changed. Transect site B (29.9.84) is an exposed wavecut platform at the foot of moderately high limestone cliffs. It is situated at the eastern end of about two miles of limestone cliff and platforms. Access is via a narrow ledge near the waterfall inlet. The platform is about 30 m wide and 50 m long, terminating at low water with a 2m 'step'. The platform slopes steeply from high water (at the cliff base) and flattens out towards low water. The substrate is similar for all zones; rough pitted limestone which holds many small rock pools in depressions in the surface, as well as several larger pools (which tend to be circular and deep, formed by the erosion caused by rounded pebbles trapped at the base of the pools. The site was revisited on 9.4.87. There were several changes in the zonation pattern. The barnacle zone had nearly disappeared, intruded from above by the Fucus zone and from below by the Palmaria/Mytilus. There was also a distinct area of Porphyra linearis within the green zone. In addition, the lower shore (lower zone 5) had a near total coverage of encrusting corallines and Ralfsia, with a lot of Corallina - Mytilus had nearly disappeared. The Mytilus dominated zones 4 and 5 had become patchy, with much of the rock surface open, and covered by a 'green stain'. A great deal of Ulva (originally recorded as Enteromorpha and Ulva) was present in the upper shore. The supralittoral contained large numbers of Melarhaphe neritoides in pits and crevices.

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