# Can Vegetation Removal Successfully Restore Coastal Dune Biodiversity?
## 3 Results
### Indicator Species  
Twenty-eight species were identified as suitable candidates to be indicator species (IS) based on the _IndVal_ analysis, including two rodents, seventeen annuals, nine beetles, and four reptiles (Table 1). The Indicator Value or _IV_ (a measure of habitat affinity) ranged from 61% to 98% across all taxa. Weighted PPC (_wPPC_) ranged from 11% for the ground beetle _Scarites striatus_ to 34% for the annual _Bromus rigidus_. Only one reptile (_Stenodactylus sthendactylus_) and five annual species were identified as potential IS for semi-fixed dunes. Most annuals (\(n=11\)) were fixed dune affiliates with high SSI. Only one annual plant species (_Cutandia memphitica_) was identified as a potential IS for mobile dunes, although it had a relatively low IV of 64% and relatively high _wPPC_ of 18%. The species with the highest and lowest _wPPC_ were selected as IS for further analysis, such that every taxonomic group had one Mobile dune Indicator Species (MIS) and one Fixed dune Indicator Species (FIS) (species in bold in Table 1). The FIS for rodents is actually an indicator for semi-fixed dunes, as identified by the IV analysis, but we refer to it as an FIS for convenience to compare with \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Taxa** & **Species** & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Affiliated Dune** \\ **Type** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} _IV \%_ \\ **(Affinity)** \\ \end{tabular} & _wPPC\%_ \\ \hline
**Rodents** & _Gerbillus pyramidum_* & Mobile & 91.29 & 11.43 \\  & _Gerbillus andersoni allenbyi_** ** & Semi-Fixed & 61.67 & 23.81 \\ \hline
**Reptiles** & _Acanthodactylus scutellatus_* & Mobile & 76.05 & 13.38 \\  & _Stendactylus sthendactylus_* & Semi-Fixed & 61.10 & 18.77 \\  & _Chalickes cellutus_* & Fixed & 70.68 & 25.28 \\  & _Acanthodactylus schreiberi_** & Fixed & 84.92 & 29.18 \\ \hline
**Beetles** & _Scarites striatus_* & Mobile & 95.90 & 10.91 \\  & _Mexquadrus bison_ & Mobile & 98.13 & 10.89 \\  & _Cardiophorus reitteri_ & Mobile & 60.97 & 12.72 \\  & _Eurycaulus henoni_ & Mobile & 69.49 & 15.07 \\  & _Tentyrina orbiculata_ & Mobile & 63.70 & 19.26 \\  & _Erodius dejeani_ & Fixed & 62.61 & 24.11 \\  & _Cheirodes spp._ & Fixed & 60.77 & 25.66 \\  & _Mesostena angustata_ & Fixed & 59.41 & 27.04 \\  & _Graphopterus sharonae_** & Fixed & 79.17 & 33.00 \\ \hline
**Annuals** & _Cutandia memphitica_* & Mobile & 64.42 & 18.64 \\  & _Ifloga spicata_ & Semi-Fixed & 69.78 & 18.89 \\  & _Lotus halophilus_ & Semi-Fixed & 64.34 & 19.86 \\  & _Crepis aculeate_ & Semi-Fixed & 68.24 & 20.62 \\  & _Polycarpon suculentum_ & Semi-Fixed & 66.85 & 20.70 \\  & _Rumex pictus_ & Semi-Fixed & 65.60 & 25.06 \\  & _Erodium licentiatum_ & Fixed & 65.50 & 29.89 \\  & _Daucus slaber_ & Fixed & 72.58 & 31.56 \\  & _Hormuzakia aggregata_ & Fixed & 70.76 & 31.62 \\  & _Gernium robertianum_ & Fixed & 73.60 & 32.13 \\  & _Lupinus palaestinus_ & Fixed & 62.36 & 32.46 \\  & _Asphodelus tennifoliaus_ & Fixed & 70.71 & 32.89 \\  & _Maresia pulchella_ & Fixed & 64.19 & 33.02 \\  & _Angallis arrensis_ & Fixed & 77.99 & 33.17 \\  & _Brassica tournefortii_ & Fixed & 83.86 & 33.99 \\  & _Rumex bucrapholorus_ & Fixed & 92.59 & 34.11 \\  & _Bromus rigidus_** & Fixed & 63.51 & 34.20 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Candidate species identified as potential indicators, using the _IndVal_ function, the dune type they are affiliated to, the Indicator Value (IV) and the weighted Perennial Percentage Cover (wPPC) for each species. Species highlighted with the lowest and highest wPPC were chosen for further analysis as * Mobile dune Indicator Species (MIS) and ** Fixed dune Indicator Species (FIS) respectively. other taxa since no true FIS was identified. Full model outputs for both MIS and FIS are given in Supplementary material Tables S5 and S6. As expected, the abundances of MIS were much lower (or absent) on untreated semi-fixed dunes compared to the mobile dunes (which is what defines them as good IS with high IV). No change in abundance was visible for the gerbil _G.