This very wide habitat type, which has come to be called the western taiga elsewhere in Europe, includes, in particular, old-growth forests which have had little to no human impact, as well as younger stands growing on recent burnt woodlands that have regenerated naturally. Many endangered species, especially mosses, lichens, fungi, and invertebrates, find habitats in old natural forests. In...

Old fresh boreo-nemoral forests, whose tree layer is dominated by linden, oak, maple, elm, or ash. This habitat type does not include species-rich mixed spruce forests, where broadleaf tree species also grow (9050), or cliff forests growing under the slopes of the klint (9180). In Estonia, broad-leaved forests with lush undergrowth are remnants of the warmer and wetter climate of thousands of...

Riparian forests (floodplain forests) cover 50–100 m wide shore embankments running parallel to a riverbed or old rivers (oxbow lakes). Flood water moves rapidly over them at the beginning of the flood, leaving behind the largest, heaviest parts of the substances it carried along as sediments. The embankments slightly higher than the surrounding area have thus been created over time from the...

The forests of occasionally flooded areas on river and stream floodplains, as well as on temporarily flooded lake shores, where the soil is enriched with the sediments of flood water. The species composition and structure of the forest depends on the part of the floodplain it grows on. Alluvial forests have formed on the lower parts of the floodplain, i.e. the parts that remain under the flood...

This habitat type includes areas with good water supply and nutrient-rich soft soil humus in the valleys, depressions, foothills, and the edges of bogs with near-surface mobile groundwater. The tree layer is dominated by spruce, but broad-leaved species (ash, linden, elm, maple) may also be present, the share of which is quite large in some places. The species-rich grass layer is formed primarily...

In Estonia, this habitat type includes the dry boreo-nemoral forests growing on the tops and slopes of eskers, moraine hills, and drumlins. The vegetation of the dry boreo-nemoral forests is similar to that of fresh boreo-nemoral forests on the one hand (that is caused by nutrient-rich soil) and to the alvar forests on the other hand (on the sunny slopes and tops, the soil may completely dry out...

In a wooded pasture, open grassland areas alternate with sparse forest, tree or shrub patches. The grass layer, which consists mainly of grassland plants, has developed under the influence of long-term grazing and will only survive if normal use continues. Broad-leaved species (for example, oaks) often grow in the tree layer, and pasture grasses (tufted hairgrass, spear thistle, etc.) stand out in...

Natural or semi-natural (once man-made) pine forests, less often alder forests on coastal dunes. The tree layer and the undergrowth are well developed, the shrub layer is absent or consists mainly of juniper. This habitat type is found more on the South-Western Estonian coast from Ikla to Pärnu, in Northern and North-Western Estonia (Nõva, Roosta, Naissaare), but also elsewhere on the old coastal...