Succesion

[DBusby]

What is plant succession? How does it operate in a sand dune ecosystem?

[WendyW]

Try http://www.bsu.edu/ourlandourlit/Environment/Ecosy
stems/sand_dunes.html hope this gives you the information you neeed.

[-claire-]

Plant succession is simply the natural process of one plant species being replaced by another, which is a continual process until climatic climax vegetation has been reached. If however, there are changes in the climate of the area, the vegetation is again likely to undergo further changes. In a sand dune ecosystem, there are 3 general stages of sand dunes. The first type of dune is the developing embryo dune, which is the youngest type of dune, and is situated nearest to the sea. Because of the conditions here, not much vegetation is present, as the conditions are unfavourable. The sand is full of shells, which makes the little humus present quite alkaline, and the salinity levels are very high. There is also a lack of water because of good drainage, so here you only find well adapted tough plants like couch grasses. The next dune is the fore or yellow dune, which is quite well established. They are usually well covered with marram grass, which is really well adapted to harsh conditions, and is pretty interesting to read about if you have time! After the yellow dunes, there are the grey dunes, the oldest dunes. Here the conditions are slightly more tollerant of plant life because of less salinity and more soil, so you can find plants like dandelions and thistle as well as trees in some cases I think. So the vegetation becomes progressively more abundant the further back you go from the sea, and biomass levels increase, as well as biodiversity, as more species can grow in the older dunes. This probably sounds really boring, but I just think its cool because I love geography and biology! Hope it helps you in some way.