Strategy Area Description

Introduction

The type and distribution of the area's habitats are related to its bedrock geology, drift geology, soil types, hydrology, land use and the prevailing climatic conditions.

The biodiversity of the area is varied and the botanical elements of this are often expressive of the underlying geology, as is well evidenced in the City of Sunderland and South Tyneside.  Many aspects of its wildlife are rooted in its history. Over the last two millennia, the influence of man has had a profound impact upon the extent and nature of habitats and, more latterly, their intrinsic quality for the biodiversity that relies upon them.

Designated sites and habitats

The strategy area incorporates a range of designated sites, which are recognised at an international, national or local level. These include:

• International:
  • 1 Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
  • 1 Special Protection Area (SPA)
  • 1 Ramsar site
• National:
  • 31 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
• Local:
  • 25 Local Nature Reserves (LNR)
  • 250 Local Wildlife Sites
  • 6 Local Geological Sites

Designated nature conservation sites cover approximately 41 square kilometres or just over 11.5% of the total Strategy Area (of c.351 square kilometres). This figure reflects the area's often urban character and the rather fragmentary distribution of its semi-natural habitats. Important such habitats within it include:

• woodlands (ancient, including planted ancient woodland sites for example PAWS, semi-natural and plantations, both broad-leaved and coniferous)
• scrub
• hedgerows
• rivers and streams
• estuarine habitats (for example mudflats, saltmarsh)
• wetlands (for example ponds) with associated swamps (for example reedbeds) and fen vegetation
• herb-rich lowland meadows and pastures
• calcareous grasslands
• coastal habitats (for example maritime cliffs and slope, rocky shores, sand dunes)
• urban (for example open mosaic habitats on previously developed land)

Habitat connectivity

How species-rich habitats 'connect' to each other and how such connections function in order to allow wildlife to move freely through the landscape is a vital consideration. It is important to consider how the connections between biodiverse habitats across the strategy area can be strengthened to create better wildlife networks, such as those along the Wear and Derwent valleys.

In this regard, less obviously wildlife-rich, linear features such as hedgerows, the verges of transport corridors and the green banksides of rivers and streams, and even ditches, can all be of significance. These features can help link the area's most important wildlife habitats but they also have the facility to better connect (ecologically) such biodiverse locations with green features in the urban sphere (for example gardens, parks and street trees), enhancing these for wildlife and providing benefits for the people that inhabit those spaces.