The environment and characteristics of low redshift galaxies detected by
  the Herschel-ATLAS
  We investigate the ultraviolet and optical properties and environment of low
redshift galaxies detected in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area
Survey (H-ATLAS) science demonstration data. We use the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey seventh release and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly database to select
galaxies with r_Petro < 19.0 mag in the redshift range 0.02 < z < 0.2 and look
for their submillimeter counterparts in H-ATLAS. Our results show that at low
redshift, H-ATLAS detects mainly blue/star-forming galaxies with a minor
contribution from red systems which are highly obscured by dust. In addition we
find that the colour of a galaxy rather than the local density of its
environment determines whether it is detectable by H-ATLAS. The average dust
temperature of galaxies that are simultaneously detected by both PACS and SPIRE
is 25K \pm 4K, independent of environment. This analysis provides a glimpse of
the potential of the H-ATLAS data to investigate the submillimeter properties
of galaxies in the local universe.
