Animals & nature · 1999
Does salt exposure or sand burial matter more for where plants grow on coastal sand dunes?
Salt generally mattered more, although both salt and sand burial were important and their relative importance varied by site. That conclusion came from comparing experimental responses of 30 plant species with where they grew across four dune systems; it does not establish a universal rule for all dunes.
Details
The researchers investigated why different plant species occupy different areas between the sea and inland parts of coastal sand dunes. In a dune system in southern New Zealand, several potentially growth-limiting conditions varied along that gradient: soil moisture and nutrients, wind exposure, sand burial, salt spray and soil salt levels.
They also compared how 30 species responded experimentally to burial, darkness, salt in the material surrounding their roots, and salt spray with the species’ distributions in four dune systems. The correlations pointed to salt and burial as important influences, with salt generally more important. However, their relative importance differed between sites. This combination of experiments and field associations supports a role for both factors, rather than identifying a single dominant cause everywhere.
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