Coastal Observations: Rapid development and colonization of a UK sand dune system

Shore & Beach ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
A.T. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dune ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Sea Buckthorn ◽  
Ammophila Arenaria ◽  
Couch Grass ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Dune Systems ◽  
Frontal Part ◽  
Agrostis Tenuis ◽  
South Wales

Between the years 1200 and 1600, vast quantities of sand were brought inshore from offshore bars as a result of centuries of ferocious storms, to form a series of dune systems along the South Wales coastline. Today, as a result of many housing, leisure, and industrial developments only a few remnants exist. On one such remnant at Porthcawl, Wales, UK, became a caravan site in the 1930s, which was abandoned in 1993 for political reasons. Within 27 years a minimum of 120,000 m3 of sand was transported from the adjacent beach and formed dunes >4 m in height along a 400- m frontal edge that extended some 130 m inland, approximately a third of the site. Typical vegetation found along the frontal part of the system are Ammophila arenaria (marram), Agropyron junceiforme (sand couch grass) and Euphorbia maritimum (spurge). To the rear of the system, vegetation included Agrostis tenuis and stolonifera, (bent and creeping bent grass), Cirsium avense (creeping thistle), and Caluna vulgaris (heather). A 4-m-high and c. 3000m2 area of a vigorous stand of Hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn) has also formed. The rapidity of dune formation and vegetation colonization is staggering.

Burial, erosion, and transformation of archaeological landscapes

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hilton ◽  
Richard Walter ◽  
Karen Greig ◽  
Teresa Konlechner
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Ammophila Arenaria ◽  
Dune Vegetation ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Dune Systems ◽  
Marram Grass ◽  
System Restoration ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Archaeological Landscape

A high proportion of archaeological sites are located on the world’s shorelines and recent research has documented the vulnerability of these sites to coastal processes and climate change. However, archaeological landscapes on many temperate coasts have already been degraded as a result of changes in dune dynamics related to changes in dune vegetation. These changes have produced marked spatial and temporal variations in patterns of burial and erosion in transgressive dune systems. This paper examines the modification and conservation of archaeological landscapes from a biogeomorphic perspective, using the example of marram grass ( Ammophila arenaria) invasion of dune systems in southern New Zealand. The impact of marram grass on dune system dynamics and the underlying archaeological landscape are complex. Full invasion may result in the general burial and protection of these landscapes, but the risk of degradation of sites is high during the invasion process. In southern New Zealand, marram invasion has resulted in the formation of stable foredunes, often associated with coastal progradation. Archaeological sites located close to the shoreline can be subject to either burial or erosion, or both, as marram grass establishes in the foredune zone. The spatial relationship between cultural sites and the shoreline may be lost as the coast progrades. The impact of marram invasion can extend throughout the hinterland dune system as a result of (i) dune mobility triggered by marram grass invasion and (ii) the development of a negative sand budget, which prevents or reduces beach-foredune-dune system sand exchange. The risk of degradation of the archaeological landscape can be significantly heighted by marram invasion, which can have profound implications for the preservation and interpretation of archaeological sites and materials. Paradoxically, dune system restoration may lead to the re-exposure of these sites, but the principal outcome of dune system restoration is expected to be a decline erosion (manifest as in deflation surfaces) and reburial of the archaeological landscape.

Influence of Ammophila arenaria on half a century of vegetation change in eastern Tasmanian sand dune systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Hayes ◽  
Jamie B. Kirkpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Sand Dune ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Ammophila Arenaria ◽  
Dune Systems ◽  
Shrub Invasion ◽  
Bare Sand ◽  
Marram Grass

There is strong observational evidence that marram grass Ammophila arenaria transforms vegetation when it invades temperate coastal sand dunes. Because of contemporaneous marram grass introduction, sea level rise, climate change and coastal land use change, we use control dune systems to test the hypotheses that marram grass displaces native sand-binding grasses, reduces the area of bare sand and facilitates shrub invasion. We mapped vegetation from aerial photographs at four times between 1948 and 2007 on four pairs of sand dune systems, with one of each pair being heavily invaded by marram grass during the period of observation. We calculated the transitions between cover types between times. On the dune systems with marram grass, dunes became taller and more regular, native sand-binders became rare, bare sand decreased in area and native shrubs colonised the stabilised dunes. In the absence of marram grass the dunes remained dynamic, with much bare sand. At two of these control sites, increases in wind strength and sea level may have facilitated the development of transgressive dunes and eroded the native sand-binders. At the remaining two control sites, native sand-binders created low incipient foredunes. Shrub invasion occurred at most control sites. We conclude that marram grass does displace native sand-binders and decrease the proportion of bare sand, but that shrub invasion is partly independent of its introduction.

Vegetation of a coastal sand dune system in southern New Zealand

1991 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin T. Sykes ◽  
J. Bastow Wilson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sand Dune ◽  
Coastal Sand Dune ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Coastal Sand

An analysis of the chalcidoid (Hymenoptera) fauna of a sand-dune system

1977 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. W. COPLAND ◽  
R. R. ASKEW
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dune ◽  
Dune System

The Vegetation of a Sand-Dune System in the Outer Hebrides

1948 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Gimingham ◽  
A. R. Gemmell ◽  
P. Greig-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dune ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Outer Hebrides

scholarly journals OBSERVATIONS OF BEACH-DUNE MORPHOGOLICAL RESPONSE TO STORM WAVES USING LIDAR BATHYMETRIC MAPPING IN A WAVE BASIN

2018 ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Ramy Y. Marmoush ◽  
Ryan P. Mulligan
Keyword(s):  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Sand Dune ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Sand Beach ◽  
Coastal Morphology ◽  
3 Dimensional ◽  
Storm Waves ◽  
Impact Scale ◽  
Wave Basin ◽  
Run Up

Waves during major storms can cause significant changes to coastal morphology (Lee et al., 1998). The beach-dune system is known to be highly vulnerable to erosion when the wave run-up exceeds the threshold of the base of the dune in the collision regime, according to the Storm Impact scale defined by Sallenger (2000). Detailed bathymetric measurements are very difficult to obtain during storms due to the hazardous wave conditions. However, bathymetric surveys can be easily and intermittently performed during smaller scale physical model experiments (e.g., Hamilton et al., 2001) and high resolution can be achieved using laser scanning with Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors (Smith et al., 2017). In the present study, a laboratory experiment of beach-dune morphology change is conducted in a rectangular wave basin that has recently been used to simulate erosion of a 2-dimensional sand dune (Berard et al., 2017). The objective of the present study is to investigate the 3-dimensional morphologic response of a sand beach-dune system to storm waves approaching at an oblique angle.

Dragonflies (Odonata) of coastal sand-dune fresh waters of South-eastren Queensland and North-eastern New South Wales

1982 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
AH Arthington ◽  
JAL Watson
Keyword(s):  
Physicochemical Properties ◽  
Sand Dune ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Physicochemical Characteristics ◽  
Coastal Sand Dune ◽  
Freshwater Streams ◽  
South Wales ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Coastal Sand

The Odonata and physicochemical properties of freshwater streams, lakes, ponds and bogs in the sand-dune systems of Fraser, Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands and Cooloola, Queensland: and Wooli, New South Wales, are described. The odonate faunas of these dune masses show some differences from those of nearby areas, and there are close associations between some species and particular types of dune fresh water. Although no physicochemical characteristics were identified that might limit these dune dragonflies to their specific habitats, the lake-dwellers in particular may be useful indicators of environmental change.

The Fungi of a Coastal Sand Dune System

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Rees ◽  
E. B. G. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dune ◽  
Coastal Sand Dune ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Coastal Sand
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