Sand Dunes

Glossary

Accretion: Process of sediment accumulation
Backdune: Dune inland of foredunes
Backshore: Shore between high water and coastal edge
Blowout: Wind-eroded area in sand surface
Community: Plants and/or animals living together under characteristic, recognisable conditions
Dominant winds: Winds of greatest effect on maritime accretion or erosion
Dune: Hill or ridge of wind-blown sand
Ecology: Study of how living things relate to their environment or surroundings
Ecosystem: The totality in which a. living organism finds itself
Ecotone: Area between zones which may in itself constitute a zone with its own communities
Embryo dune: Small, often ephemeral sand mound on the backshore, which in a prograding system may develop into a new foredune
Fixed dune: Dune with a surface stabilised by vegetation
Foredune: Dune which lies nearest the sea
Foreshore: Shore between high and low water
Frontshore system: Dune system, usually prograding, which projects seaward from the main shoreline
Grey dune: Well-vegetated fixed dune with mosses, lichens, grasses and herbs
Habitat: The recognisable area or type of environment in which an organism normally lives
Hindshore system: Dune system which extends inland from the shoreline
Intertidal: Between high and low tide lines; legally, between high water mark spring tides and low water mean ordinary tides
Leach: The process by which percolating water removes nutrients from the soil
Littoral: Of or existing on a shore; intertidal
Machair: Maritime sand plain, typically calcareous (as found in northwest Scotland and western Ireland)
Marine: Of or pertaining to the sea
Maritime: Pertaining to the shore; legally, above high water mark spring tides
Mobile dune: Dune with an open plant community or bare of vegetation, which tends to erode or move downwind
Natural succession: The process by which one community of organisms gives way to another in an orderly series from colonisers to climax
Neap tide: Tide of least range
Offset: Shoot that develops at the base of a plant which can root to form a new plant
Prevailing winds: Winds of greatest frequency, often but not always the dominant winds
Prograding: Developing along or into open water
Rhizome: Fleshy root-ball from which roots and side shoots develop
Salt marsh: Intertidal area having characteristic vegetation adapted to saline soils and to periodic submergence in sea water
Slack: Area within dune system where the surface is at or near the ground water level
Spring tide: Tide of greatest range
Strandline: High tide line where debris collects
Sublittoral: Below the tides; legally, below low water mark mean ordinary tides
Thatching: Covering of brushwood laid down to protect dune grasses and help trap sand
Tiller (v): To send forth shoots from the base; typically of grass which is mown or grazed
Water table: Level below which the soil is waterlogged
Yellow dune: Incompletely vegetated dune with bare sand exposed between plant stems
Zonation: The occurrence of communities in distinct geographical areas or zones