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The Ecology of Sandy Shores provides the students and researchers with a one- volume resource for understanding the conservation and management of the sandy shore ecosystem. Covering all beach types, and addressing issues from the behavioral and physiological adaptations of the biota to exploring the effects of pollution and the impact of man's activities, this book should become the standard reference for those interested in Sandy Shore study, management and preservation. * More than 25% expanded from the previous edition * Three entirely new chapters: Energetics and Nutrient Cycling, Turtles and Terrestrial Vertebrates, and Benthic Macrofauna Populations * New sections on the interstitial environment, seagrasses, human impacts and coastal zone management * Examples drawn from virtually all parts of the world, considering all beach types from the most exposed to the most sheltered

Dunesis the first book in over a decade to incorporate the latest research in this active and fast-developing field. It discusses the shapes, sizes, patterns, distribution, history and care of wind-blown dunes, and covers all aspects of dunes, terrestrial and in the Solar System.The only book to cover all dunes, terrestrial and in the Solar System, in deserts, on coasts, and in the pastRepresents the most current update on the research of dunes for over a decadeIncorporates the latest research to come out of China where the field is most rapidly expandingDiscusses the most recent range of skills and technology now focused on the study of dunesBrings up-to-date a rapidly expanding field

In the Nebraska Sandhills, ranchers on horseback and in pickup trucks share the range with pronghorn antelope, burrowing owls, and long-billed curlews. The native grasses grow greener as the cattle grow fatter. Throughout the region, river otters and mink swim in streams nourished by springs bubbling up from the High Plains (Ogallala) aquifer. Over years of close observation, Stephen R. Jones has gotten to know the Nebraska Sandhills-the twenty-thousand-square-mile expanse of stunning prairie and thriving wetlands. He has felt the warm breath of a white-tailed doe guarding her spotted fawn, learned to communicate with a family of long-eared owls, and developed an improbable hiking relationship with a wild turkey. He has documented a breeding bird population that is growing more diverse and witnessed the long-awaited return of nesting trumpeter swans. These personal stories, accompanied by words of insight from Native American leaders, Sandhills ranchers, and grassland ecologists, help us envision a quiet relationship with the natural world.

Fences are commonly used in coastal regions to control wind-blown sand. Sand-trapping fences and sand-stabilizing fences have been installed at the Tottori Sand Dunes, Tottori Prefecture, Japan, to prevent damage by wind-blown sand; however, the effectiveness of these fences has not previously been quantitatively evaluated. This study analyzed the effects of sand fences on sand trapping using field observations of blown-sand flux and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry. The estimated total blown-sand flux in the near-ground surface observed inside and outside the sand fences indicated that wind-blown sand was effectively trapped by the sand fences at wind speeds lower than 17 m s−1, reducing sand flux by more than 80%. The UAV photogrammetry results demonstrated that large amounts of sand were transported from the dune to the fenced area during March and April, and sand initially accumulated on the lee side of the sand-trapping fences, forming a new foredune. Sand accumulated on the existing foredune during April and May, and the vertical accretion around the foredune was two to four times the sand deposition within the sand-stabilizing fences. This indicated the effectiveness of sand-trapping fences for controlling wind-blown sand; however, their efficiency was reduced as they were gradually buried, with sand being trapped by the sand-stabilizing fences.

The Athabasca sand dunes in northern Saskatchewan and north‐east Alberta are a unique landscape of moving sand that hosts nine narrowly distributed endemic vascular plant taxa. We modeled the extent of habitat for each species, corresponding dune morphologies in species habitat, spatial and temporal variation in dune environments, and rates of woody vegetation encroachment at dune boundaries to support an assessment of long‐term threats for the Athabasca endemic dune flora. Landsat images were used to maximize the time spans and areal coverage of the study. The Athabasca sand dunes are currently active and characterized morphologically by crescentic ridge and morphodynamically by transverse form dunes. Longitudinal sand movement parallel to the dune axis resulted in the creation of new dune areas along the east and south‐east boundaries of the dune fields at a rate of 0.14 km2 year−1. Forest succession along the western boundaries of the dune fields resulted at an annual dune loss of 1.98 km2 year−1. The net extent of dune stabilization between 1985 and 2014 was 53.76 km2 or nearly 20 percent of the total open sand dune extent. All habitat modeling methods showed robust performance (>0.5 AUC), with the best performance in most cases from generalized linear models. Estimated total available/occupied habitat was comparatively low for the least abundant species Achillea millefolium (38.92 km2) and Armeria maritima (48.82 km2), and of those areas 53.5% and 16.29%, respectively, are influenced by dune stabilization. Continuing stabilization of the Athabasca sand dunes region may present conservation concerns for these narrowly distributed endemic taxa. This paper addresses the conservation concern of nine narrowly distributed endemic vascular plant taxa in the Athabasca Sand Dunes, Saskatchewan, Canada. We evaluated the extent of critical habitat for each species, dune morphologies, long‐term dune environment spatio‐temporal variation and rates of woody vegetation encroachment at dune boundaries to support a long‐term threats assessment for the Athabasca endemic flora. Remote sensing and GIS were key aspects of the study and Landsat images were used to maximize the time spans and areal coverage of the study. By estimating the distribution of the rare endemic taxa, we were able to show that a large proportion of the area of occupancy of some species is influenced by dune stabilization. Continuing stabilization of the Athabasca sand dunes region may present conservation concern for these narrowly distributed endemic taxa.

Early in speciation, as populations undergo the transition from local adaptation to incipient species, is when a number of transient, but potentially important, processes appear to be most easily detected. These include signatures of selective sweeps that can point to asymmetry in selection between habitats, divergence hitchhiking, and associations of adaptive genes with environments. In a genomic comparison of ecotypes of the prairie sunflower, Helianthus petiolaris, occurring at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (Colorado), we found that selective sweeps were mainly restricted to the dune ecotype and that there was variation across the genome in whether proximity to the nondune population constrained or promoted divergence. The major regions of divergence were few and large between ecotypes, in contrast with an interspecific comparison between H. petiolaris and a sympatric congener, Helianthus annuus. In general, the large regions of divergence observed in the ecotypic comparison swamped locus-specific associations with environmental variables. In both comparisons, regions of high divergence occurred in portions of the genetic map with high marker density, probably reflecting regions of low recombination. The difference in genomic distributions of highly divergent regions between ecotypic and interspecific comparisons highlights the value of studies spanning the spectrum of speciation in related taxa.

This study aimed to determine the diversity and distribution of endophytic fungi in coastal dune vegetation. Endophytic fungi promote plant growth and protect host plants from environmental stress and pathogens. Plants that have flourished as a result are critical for protecting coastal sand dunes from erosion. A total of 361 root-colonizing fungal endophytes were purely isolated from 24 halophyte species comprising all dune plant communities indigenous to a well-conserved coastal area based on morphological differences. Molecular identification and phylogeny using amplified ribosomal RNA sequences and internal transcribed spacer regions identified that the fungal isolates belong to seven classes and 39 genera. Penicillium (43.21%) was the most dominant genera, followed by Talaromyces (16.90%) and Aspergillus (11.91%). Furthermore, these genera present a wide host range. However, 16 other genera exhibited strong host specificity. When compared to other herbaceous or shrub host plant species, Talaromyces predominated as endophytes of the roots of the canopy-forming coastal windbreak tree Pinus thunbergii. Based on Margalef’s, Menhinick’s, Shannon’s, and Simpson’s diversity indices, the root-colonizing endophytes of P. thunbergii had higher morphological diversity. The endophyte fungi associated with five of the coastal plants studied are heretofore unreported. In fact, of all fungal genera characterized here, 13 genera (30%) have not been previously reported as marine fungal endophytes or coastal fungi. The foregoing results suggest that future coastal sand dune conservation studies should examine the biological resources of entire bioclusters and not merely the dominant plants or their endosymbionts.

Complex interactions between plants and soil microorganisms drive key ecosystem and community properties such as productivity and diversity. In nutrient-poor systems such as sand dunes, plant traits and fungal symbioses related to nutrient acquisition can strongly influence vegetation dynamics. We investigated plant and fungal communities in a relic foredune plain located on an archipelago in Québec, Canada. We detected distinct communities across the edaphic and successional gradient. Our results showed a clear increase in plant species richness, as well as in the diversity of nutrient-acquisition strategies. We also found a strong correlation between aboveground vegetation and soil fungal communities, and both responded similarly to soil physicochemical properties. Soil pH influenced the composition of plant and fungal communities, and could act as an important environmental filter along this relic foredune plain. The increasing functional diversity in plant nutrient-acquisition strategies across the gradient might favor resource partitioning and facilitation among co-occurring plant species. The coordinated changes in soil microbial and plant communities highlight the importance of aboveground–belowground linkages and positive biotic interactions during ecological succession in nutrient-poor environments. Strong correlation between vegetation and soil fungal communities, similar responses to soil properties, and increasing diversity of plant nutrient-acquisition strategies were revealed along a coastal dune successional and edaphic gradient.

This study examines the process of invasion of coastal dunes in north-eastern Italy along a 60-year time series considering alien attributes (origin, residence time, invasive status, and growth form strategy) and habitat properties (species richness, diversity and evenness, proportion of aliens, and proportion of focal species). Vegetation changes through time were investigated in four sandy coastal habitats, using a fine-scale diachronic approach that compared vegetation data collected by use of the same procedure, in four time periods, from the 1950s to 2011. Our analysis revealed an overall significant decline of species richness over the last six decades. Further, both the average number of species per plot and the mean focal species proportion were proved to be negatively affected by the increasing proportion of alien species at plot level. The severity of the impact, however, was found to be determined by a combination of species attributes, habitat properties, and human disturbance suggesting that alien species should be referred to as “passengers” and not as “drivers” of ecosystem change. Passenger alien species are those which take advantage of disturbances or other changes to which they are adapted but that lead to a decline in native biodiversity. Their spread is facilitated by widespread anthropogenic environmental alterations, which create new, suitable habitats, and ensure human-assisted dispersal, reducing the distinctiveness of plant communities and inducing a process of biotic homogenization.