FLORA and fauna came under the microscope at the Dibden Bay public inquiry - relaunched yesterday after a three-week Easter break.

The inquiry into plans by Associated British Ports (ABP) to develop a container terminal at Dibden Bay will for the next month focus on the future of local wildlife.

Dibden Bay - most of which was reclaimed from Southampton Water in the early 1970s - was named a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by English Nature in 2001. It has also been included in the boundary of the proposed New Forest National Park.

Objectors to the scheme - including Hampshire County Council - have warned that a large population of water birds will be homeless if the Dibden Bay development goes ahead. Rare marsh plants and "important" insects and other creatures could also be hit.

But ABP's ecology expert Philip Colebourn said Dibden Bay had been made to look more important as a wildlife haven than it really was.

"Of course a site as intensively studied as Dibden Bay will be shown to support more species than sites where survey has been neglected," he told the inquiry.

Mr Colebourn, an expert in woodland as well as coasts who has known the Bay area for 30 years, said data could be easily distorted.

"Peak counts of highly mobile species give a false impression," he said.

"Birds which have used Dibden Foreshore will not die because they are displaced. They will find other places to feed."

Mr Colebourn said he had worked for several years on ABP's "habitat creation package" to replace wildlife zones which will be lost if the terminal goes ahead.

"I do not consider the terminal will be significantly disturbing to waterfowl, bearing in mind Southampton Water is an already industrialised estuary." Mr Colebourn said figures showed the number of water birds using Southampton Water has risen by nearly 42 per cent over the last five years.

"That is not an indication of a system under stress," he said.