Dry heaths cover undulating or more or less flat sandy inland areas, from which heath forests (sometimes dry boreal forests) have been cut down or where they have been destroyed by forest fires. Compared to the dry sand heaths with Calluna and Empetrum nigrum (2320), the vegetation and soil cover of inland heaths usually have a longer development history: they are often secondary communities...

Inland areas with flat or slightly undulating topography and sometimes loose sand. They are often anthropogenic – formed where the grass surface has been disturbed for some reason: due to strong trampling (for example, Värska’s largest inland dunes were created on military training grounds), forest fires (Kaibaldi inland dune in Hiiu County), etc. When human activity ceases, the inland areas with...

Inland heather and crowberry heaths, especially in coastal sandy plains. The vegetation is similar to that of the decalcified fixed dunes (2140), but the habitat type discussed here is not located on dunes (or if, then on older dunes located further from the sea). These heaths are usually quite open, sometimes with the only trees being pines and junipers. In the shrub and grass layers, heather has...

In Estonia, we mostly have caves eroded by groundwater: they are abundant in the carbonate rock shore of Northern Estonia and in the deep valleys that intersect in it, as well as in the sandstone walls of Southern Estonia – in Tilleorg, Suur-Taevaskoda and Väike-Taevaskoda, Võhandu and Piusa valleys, Koorküla, Helme etc. Caves created by waves and wind set-down can be seen in the sandstone banks...

We distinguish limestone pavements in the areas of open limestone, where a very thin layer of soil only partially covers the carbonate rock. As a result, the vegetation is not fully developed and the plants characteristic of alvar flatrocks (6280) grow in patches. It is an extremely dry habitat, but occasionally, especially in spring, the depressions can still be filled with water. In the...

This habitat type includes Devonian sandstone outcrops on the steep embankments of the ancient valleys in Southern and South-Eastern Estonia on the banks of the Ahja, Võhandu, and Piusa rivers, as well as in Kallaste on the shore of Lake Peipsi. Sandstone outcrops can also be found on the North Estonian cliffed coast or klint, where the Ordovician sandstone deposits can be seen. Includes the...

Such outcrops can be found on the North Estonian cliffed coast (klint) – where storm waves do not usually reach the carbonate rock wall (hence the difference from habitat type 1230), but also in the canyon valleys of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Finland – Keila, Jägala, Valgejõgi, Narva rivers, and others – and on the carbonate rock drumlins of the inland areas of the Western Estonian Klint...

Fens are the first stage of development of bogs, where, despite the thickness of the peat layer, which is more than 30 cm, the plants receive most of the nutrients from the groundwater. This habitat type includes the more species-rich part of fens, which mostly feed on calcareous groundwater. Low-growing sedges and brown mosses predominate, and there are many limestone-loving species, including...

This habitat type includes springs where travertine – a porous sediment composed mainly of calcium carbonate – is formed. Travertine deposits when calcium-rich (hard, so to speak) groundwater seeps to the ground and evaporates. The non-evaporated water flows between the plants and into the upper layers of the soil, so springfens form around these springs as well: the travertine deposit is covered...

This habitat type includes the habitats of the swamp sawgrass (Cladium mariscus), which is rare and protected in Estonia. The swamp sawgrass, which often grows near the Davall’s sedge, can be found in places in both minereotrophic fens with lime-rich groundwater and in paludifying meadows with nutrient-rich soils. Includes the eutrophic alkaline fen and the eutrophic paludifying meadow habitat...