In addition to the definitions set out in Article 2, the following definitions shall apply:

1. (1)

   ‘biotope’ means a region of relatively uniform environmental conditions, occupied by a given plant community and its associated animal community.

2. (2)

   ‘habitat’ means the locality in which a plant or animal naturally grows or lives. It can be either the geographical area over which it extends, or the particular station in which a specimen is found. A habitat is characterized by a relative uniformity of the physical environment and fairly close interaction of all the biological species involved.

3. (3)

   ‘habitat type (or biotope type)’ means an abstract type classified to describe habitats or biotopes that are common in some characteristics on a certain level of detail. Commonly used classification criteria may refer to vegetation structure (as woodland, pastures, heathland) or to abiotic features such as running waters, limestone rocks or sand dunes, but also to relevant phases or stages of the life-cycle of a certain species or ecological guild, like wintering areas, nesting areas or wandering corridors etc.

4. (4)

   ‘distribution (of habitat types)’ means a collection of spatial objects where the habitat type occurs, giving information on the occurrence of one specific habitat type in time or space across analytical units. It is usually depicted or modelled based on other spatial objects used as analytical units, for instance across grid-cells (very frequently), bio-geographical regions, nature conservation sites or administrative units.

5. (5)

   ‘habitat feature’ means a habitat in terms of its exact location, size (area or volume) and biological information (e.g. occurring habitat types, structural traits, lists of species, vegetation types).

6. (6)

   ‘species’ means a taxonomic category ranking immediately below a genus and including closely-related and morphologically similar individuals which actually or potentially inbreed. In the context of the theme Habitats and Biotopes, ‘species’ means all animal species, plant species or fungi species relevant to describe a habitat.

7. (7)

   ‘vegetation’ means the plants of an area considered in general or as communities, but not taxonomically. Vegetation can also be defined as the total plant cover in a particular area or on the Earth as a whole.

8. (8)

   ‘vegetation type’ means plants (or total mass of plant life) of a given area considered in general or as plant communities, but not taxonomically.