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Sand dune ecology describes the biological and physico-chemical interactions that are a characteristic of sand dunes. Sand dune systems are excellent places for biodiversity, partly because they are not very productive for agriculture, and partly because disturbed, stressful, and stable habitats are present in proximity to each other.
Spinifex is a genus of perennial coastal plants in the grass family. [2] [3] [4] [5]They are one of the most common plants that grow in sand dunes along the coasts of Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia, with the ranges of some species extending north and west along the coasts of Asia as far as India and Japan. [6]
Psammosere's literal meaning is “originating on sand". It was named by Frederic E. Clements who described the sequence in Plant Succession 1916, [3] although it had also been observed by Henry Chandler Cowles after he conducted several studies on the sand dunes surrounding Lake Michigan, which was influenced by the work of Eugenius Warming.
The plant's spread has changed the topography of some California beach ecosystems, especially in sand dunes. The presence of this grass was a major cause of the destruction of native dune habitat in Oregon and Washington during the 20th century, [19] where it was planted precisely for its dune-stabilizing effect. [20]
He first published this work as a paper in the Botanical Gazette in 1899 ("The ecological relations of the vegetation of the sand dunes of Lake Michigan"). [12] In this classic publication and subsequent papers, he formulated the idea of primary succession and the notion of a sere —a repeatable sequence of community changes specific to ...
Barchans or crescent dunes are produced by wind acting on desert sand; the two horns of the crescent and the slip face point downwind. Sand blows over the upwind face, which stands at about 15 degrees from the horizontal, and falls onto the slip face, where it accumulates up to the angle of repose of the sand, which is about 35 degrees.
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Star dunes are formed by variable winds, and have several ridges and slip faces radiating from a central point. They tend to grow vertically; they can reach a height of 500 m (1,600 ft), making them the tallest type of dune. Rounded mounds of sand without a slip face are the rare dome dunes, found on the upwind edges of sand seas. [59]