# Can Vegetation Removal Successfully Restore Coastal Dune Biodiversity?
## 3 Results
### Indicator Species
pyramidum_ (Figure 11a) in treated semi-fixed dunes. A small increase in abundance for the lizard _A. scutellatus_ was also observed in treated semi-fixed dunes, becoming more similar to levels found in mobile dunes, but the increase was not great enough to become significantly different from untreated semi-fixed dunes (Figure 11b). Meanwhile a significant increase in abundance was observed for _S. striatus_ in treated compared to untreated semi-fixed dunes, although it did not reach reference levels (Figure 11c). The annual MIS, _C. memphitica_ had a large range of cover across samples, and cover in treated semi-fixed dunes was not significantly different to mobile or untreated semi-fixed dunes (Figure 11d). While not significantly different from control, we calculated that both the rodent and reptile MIS abundance increased by 15% of the difference between control and reference levels overall (Table 2i a and b). This can be considered as 15% of the desired response, if the treated dunes were expected to become identical to mobile dunes (\(H_{6}\)). For beetles the increase was 27%, and for annuals there was overcompensation in the MIS abundance, with a 114% increase compared to reference (Table 2). Figure 11: Boxplots of (**a–d**) Mobile dune Indicator Species (MIS) and (**e–h**) Fixed dune Indicator Speices (FIS) for each taxon (see icons by row), showing the 25% and 75% percentiles of the measure of abundance (Y axis units e.g., rank abundance/ % cover) on each dune type for rodents, reptiles, beetles and annuals. Dune types were tested for significant differences between treated dunes, their control pair and reference mobile dunes, using mixed effect models. Disturbed dunes were tested against semi-fixed control dune and mobile dunes. Significant results (\(p<0.05\)) are shown for treated dunes compared to *control and +reference dunes (dune type abbreviations refer to the Nizzanim ITER coding system for continuity). The abundances of the MIS _G. pyramidum_ and _A. scutellatus_ on disturbed dunes were also significantly higher than their abundances in semi-fixed control dunes and were similar to the abundances found on mobile dunes (Figure 11a,b), increasing by 126% and 68% of the expected abundance respectively (Table 2). The abundance of _S. striatus_ was significantly higher on disturbed dunes compared to semi-fixed control dunes (42% increase), but it was still significantly lower than on mobile dunes (Figure 11c). None of the MIS responded to fixed dune treatments rejecting H\({}_{6}\); they remained absent on treated fixed dunes (Figure 11a-d). FIS was not found to show any significant response to fixed dune treatment in any taxa (Figure 11e-h) leading us to reject \(H_{6}\). Although the abundance of _G. a. allenbyi_ significantly decreased in treated semi-fixed dunes compared to their untreated pair, the response was not enough to become similar to mobile dunes (Figure 11e). Lastly, disturbed dunes had a significantly lower abundance of this rodent than both mobile and untreated semi-fixed dunes, while the beetle FIS was only found to be significantly lower than untreated semi-fixed dunes, being almost entirely absent from mobile dunes (Figure 11g). Mean abundance of rodent and beetle FIS declined by 30% and 33% of the desired reduction respectively (Table 2). Annual FIS % cover declined by 21%, and there was no change in fixed dunes for reptile FIS. In addition, mean abundance decreased for all FIS in semi-fixed treated dunes by 30%, 36%, 30% and 42% in rodents, reptiles, beetles and annuals respectively, towards the reference. We plotted the abundance of each species (mean for each dune type) over time to show populations fluctuations (Figure 12). These abundances were tested yearly in a pairwise permuted distribution test. The significance of these tests should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample sizes and multiple testing. Nevertheless, some interesting trends were apparent across the different taxa.