Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system
This article gives an overview of the , strandline and sand-dune communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.
Introduction[]
The shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities of the NVC were described in Volume 5 of British Plant Communities, first published in 2000, along with the other maritime communities (those of saltmarshes and maritime cliffs) and vegetation of open habitats.
In total, 19 shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities have been identified.
The shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities consist of a single community found on coastal shingle (SD1), two communities associated with strandlines (SD2 and SD3), and sixteen sand-dune communities.
The sand-dune communities fall into the following four groups:
- six foredune and mobile dune communities (, , , , and SD19)
- four fixed-dune grasslands (, , SD11 and SD12)
- five dune-slack communities (, , , and SD17)
- one dune scrub community, SD18
Other communities occurring on sand-dunes[]
There are a number of other communities which occur on sand-dunes, but are not classified as sand-dune communities within the NVC. Those listed in British Plant Communities are as follows:
- Maritime cliff communities MC5 and MC6
- Open vegetation communities OV4 and OV27
- Mesotrophic grassland communities MG8, MG10 and MG11
- Swamp communities and
- Mire communities and
- Heath community
List of shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities[]
The following is a list of the communities that make up this category:
- SD1 Rumex crispus - Glaucium flavum shingle community
- SD2 Honkenya peploides - Cakile maritima strandline community
- SD3 Matricaria maritima - Galium aparine strandline community
- SD11 Carex arenaria - Cornicularia aculeata dune community
- SD12 Carex arenaria - Festuca ovina - Agrostis capillaris dune grassland
- SD17 Potentilla anserina - Carex nigra dune-slack community
- SD18 Hippophae rhamnoides dune scrub
- SD19 Phleum arenarium - Arenaria serpyllifolia dune annual community Tortulo-Phleetum arenariae (Massart 1908) Br.-Bl. & de Leeuw 1936
- British National Vegetation Classification shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities