page_title: Sand dune stabilization
section_title: Coastal sand dune management
hierarchical_section_title: Sand dune stabilization / Coastal sand dune management
caption_attribution_description: English: Chicken wire used to protect and help seedlings grow
context_page_description: Sand dunes are common features of shoreline and desert environments. Dunes provide habitat for highly specialized plants and animals, including rare and endangered species. They can protect beaches from erosion and recruit sand to eroded beaches. Dunes are threatened by human activity, both intentional and unintentional. Countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Netherlands, operate significant dune protection programs.
  Stabilizing dunes involves multiple actions. Planting vegetation reduces the impact of wind and water. Wooden sand fences can help retain sand and other material needed for a healthy sand dune ecosystem. Footpaths protect dunes from damage from foot traffic.
  They can also protect beaches from erosion and recruit sand to eroded beaches and to many other places too.
  The location of the dune limits the types of plant that can thrive there. Beach dunes consist of the foredune, the angled side which faces the ocean, the sand plain at the top of the dune, which may or may not be present, and the backdune, the angled side that faces away from the ocean.
context_section_description: Coastal sand dunes fringe thousands of Kilometres of coastline around the world. They are made up of continuous, hummocky hills of sand that are held together by specially adapted sand dune vegetation.  See Figure 1. These plants have adaptations that allow them to survive in sand dune habitats, these include adaptations to a moving substrate which covers and uncovers its roots, adaptation to desiccation, to strong winds carrying salt and sand and to wildly changing temperatures. Coastal sand dunes formed during a time of low sea level where sand and sediments on the foreshore became exposed and in conjunction with sufficient winds, this sand was transported up the beach face via a process known as saltation.  Once sufficient wind (>15 km/hr) mobilises sand particles they become trapped in vegetation or drift wood at the back of the beach, sand then continues to accumulate among the vegetation and over time slowly builds up the dunes we see today. Sand dunes serve an important purpose by protecting inland areas from coastal water intrusion. They are able to absorb the impact and protect inland areas from high energy storms and act as a resilient barrier to the destructive forces of wind and waves.
caption: Figure 3: protecting plants with chicken wire
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