<p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Rock</strong></p> <p>This group includes sparsely vegetated<strong> </strong>habitats where the vegetation cover is usually low, typically less than 25% (although this depends on scale), such as cliffs and screes. Some grassland also belongs to this group (e.g. Serpentinophilous grassland of Cyprus).</p> <p>From the habitats listed in the Annex of the EU Habitats Directive <strong>23 habitat types</strong> are considered as &ldquo;rocky&rdquo; habitats. The conservation status for these habitat types has been assessed as favourable within 41% of all cases, 23% unfavourable inadequate and 17% unfavourable bad. In 19% of the cases the conservation status is unknown. For <strong>156 species</strong> covered by the EU Habitats Directive, the rocky habitats are their preferred habitat. For these species the conservation status was assessed as favourable in a quarter of all cases, but for a large number 37% the conservation status is unkown.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Ice/Polar</strong></p> <p>High mountain zones and high latitude land masses occupied by glaciers or by perennial snow. They may be inhabited by algae and invertebrates.</p> <p>This group includes permanent snow and ice. There is only one habitat type from Annex of the EU Habitats Directive within this group (8340 Permanent glaciers). The conservation status for this habitat type has been assessed as unfavourable bad. 14 species or subspecies listed covered by the EU Habitats Directive are linked to ice/polar ecosystems. For&nbsp;seven species the conservation status was assessed; <strong>54 %</strong> of these are within the worst category (<strong>unfavourable bad</strong>).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>selected links</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://caff.arcticportal.org/">Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)</a></span></p> <p><a href="http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/library/maps/Circumpolar/">Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar Region</a></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://caff.arcticportal.org/"><br /></a></span></p> 2011-10-11T16:00:21Z tag:biodiversity.europa.eu,2011-10-11:/topics/ecosystems-and-habitats/ice-rock-polar http://biodiversity.europa.eu/misc_/CHM2/Site.gif Biodiversity Information System for Europe