The comparative tables
The comparative tables enable a rapid comparison of the
species composition and the principal physical characteristics
between user-defined sets of biotopes (and other classification
units). They are equivalent to the biological and physical
comparative tables that were included in the back of the biotope
manuals in version 97.06 of the classification (Connor et
al., 1997 a,b).
For version 04.05 of the classification, the comparative
tables are provided in the form of two Excel™ documents, which
can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. One contains physical
data, and the other contains biological (species) data. The
information in these tables is based solely on data from the core
biotope records, i.e. those field records from the JNCC marine
database on which the biotope descriptions are based. The text
section on
data analysis describes how these core biotope
records were determined.
Guidance notes have been written on the comparative tables,
which describe the layout and the filtering options of the tables,
as well as details on the derivation of the data. The tables
contain a large amount of data and a large range of
filtering options, which may lead to confusion: the guidance notes
should help to address most question. There are separate pages
for guidance notes for the
physical tables and the
biological tables, or they can be downloaded as
a pdf file at the bottom of this page.
In order to use the comparative tables effectively,
familiarity with the biotope codes and the hierarchical structure
of the classification is required. It may help to print out
the
hierarchy structure diagrams for the five broad
habitats, and use them as a cross-reference. Note that the
comparative tables contain information for units at all levels in
the classification hierarchy, i.e. from broad habitats through to
sub-biotopes. For brevity, the term "biotope" is used to refer to
all classification units throughout the guidance notes.