Sand Dunes in Europe

This article provides an introduction to the coastal sand dune habitat, focusing on the biodiversity of coastal sand dunes in Europe. It includes links to more detailed reports on individual countries prepared as part of a European Sand Dune Inventory (Doody ed., 2008) .

Coastal sand dune is one of the habitat sub-categories within the section dealing with biodiversity of coastal and marine habitats and ecosystems. This forms part of the ENCORA Theme 7.

Introduction

Coastal sand dunes develop on coastlines with an adequate supply of material within the size range 0.2-2.0mms. The critical factor is the availability of a sufficiently large beach, which dries out at low tide and where sand grains are blown onto the land by the action of the wind. Sand dunes occur in many parts of the World, along coasts and in deserts. In most locations in the temperate regions of the world, vegetation plays an important role in the growth of the typical dune landscape, which is so familiar to anyone visiting the 'seaside', by facilitating the accumulation of sediment. In Europe sand dunes border long stretches of the coastline. The wind blows the sediment inland to form accumulations a few centimetres to 40m or more thick. The type of sand dune landscape existing today is the product of a long history of a response to natural (geomorphological) forces and human modification. They often occur in a complex of other habitats spanning the range of terrestrial coastal habitats and ecosystems in transitional waters.

Sand dune succession

Sand dune vegetation succession occurs in a sequence beginning with foreshore communities, through mobile dunes and fixed dune including grassland and heath. In the early stages plants include species tolerant of occasional immersion in sea water and burial by sand.

Figure 1: A highly simplified linear model of succession along a landward gradient from the foreshore inland. Dune heath develops at an earlier stage in the succession, where dunes are derived from acid, silica sand (after Duffy 1968) . Copyright J Pat Doody

Figure 2: Ephemeral embryo sand dune with Sand Couch and Sea Rocket, Wales, UK. Copyright J Pat Doody

See also

The Wikipedia includes articles on sand dunes see [1]

References

The main author of this article is Doody, Pat Please note that others may also have edited the contents of this article. Citation: Doody, Pat (2008): Sand Dunes in Europe. Available from http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Sand_Dunes_in_Europe [accessed on 22-11-2024] For other articles by this author see Category:Articles by Doody, Pat For an overview of contributions by this author see Special:Contributions/Pat Doody