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 any 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)

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

Pan

In a salt marsh, a sunken area having poor drainage and highly saline soil

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 adapated 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