Method
The site is a sandy spit running in an east-west direction along the Atlantic Coast. Inland behind the spit is an extensive estuary formed by two rivers. View an aerial photo of the site. The dune has formed by the process of long-shore drift, where cliffs further along the coast are eroded and the material is washed up onto the beach and blown inshore. As a result, the dune is accreting (actively forming) so new land is being created. An interesting feature of these dunes is that they are surrounded by water on three of four sides: the Atlantic Ocean on the southern side and the brackish estuarine lagoon to the north and east.
The dune consists of vegetation with varying degrees of establishment. It supports tough salt-tolerant and drought-tolerant grasses along with a range of herbaceous annual and perennial plants. Some species are more established and have woody characteristics.
A 260m transect was established, running from the high water mark inland across the dunes. This was sampled using a sequence of 0.25m2 quadrats at 10m intervals. Percentage plant cover was measured at each point and a soil sample was also taken from each quadrat. (Wherever possible we identified plants to species or genus, however, small some seedlings were unidentifiable.) The associated plant photographs and descriptions illustrate some of the plants and provide views of the site.
The data for this exercise were collected in March 2006.
