The phytoplankton is rich in species in these lakes, but not very rich (moderate) in biomass, aquatic vegetation is dominated by elodeids – plants attached to the bottom whose inflorescence extends to the surface of the water. These are our best fishing lakes. In Estonia, this habitat type includes the high-nutrient (eutrophic) lakes with moderately hard water located in the depressions of moraine...

This habitat type includes both calcareous lakes with clear to bluish green water and lakes rich in lime and humic substances with yellow or brownish water. All of them are united by the abundance of charophytes. In Estonia, this habitat type is represented by the light-water spring-fed permanent lakes of the Pandivere Uplands (Lake Äntu Sinijärv and Lake Porkuni in Lääne-Viru County) and Lake...

There are no water bodies in Estonia that exactly correspond to this habitat type, because some of the characteristic species are rare in Estonia (American shoreweed (Littorella uniflora) only grows in the shallow brackish water bodies of Western Saaremaa) or we do not have them at all. In terms of other features, some larger Estonian lakes with moderately hard water can theoretically be...

In Estonia, this habitat type includes the low-nutrient (oligotrophic) lakes with clear light or bluish green water and semi-humic (semi-dystrophic) lakes with yellow or light brown water. The water of both is low in minerals and biogenic substances, but the semi-dystrophic bodies of water contain more humic substances and have richer biota. The bottom and shores of low-nutrient lakes are mostly...

Semi-natural communities where juniper covers at least one third of the area. If there is less juniper, it is a Nordic alvar (6280) or semi-natural dry grassland on calcareous substrates (6210). Juniper formations are found mainly on alvars, to a lesser extent on inland heaths, where the undergrowth resembles that of dry heaths (4030). Where juniper formations are left to nature – in abandoned...

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...