The Importance of Annual Plants and Multi-Scalar Analysis for Understanding Coastal Dune Stabilization Process in the Mediterranean

Abstract

Since ecological phenomena and patterns vary with scale, scalar analysis is a developing practice in ecology. Scalar analysis is most valuable in heterogeneous environments, since habitat heterogeneity is a key factor in determining biodiversity. One such case can be seen in the changes in annual vegetation in coastal sand dune systems. Most studies in these environments are carried out at the dune scale, comparing dunes at different stabilization states. However, a broader understanding of dune stabilization processes requires analyses at the finer scales of dune slope aspects (directions of exposure to wind) and patches (under and between woody perennial species). Here, we present the results of a study that combines the three scales (dune, slope, and patch) in the Mediterranean coastal dune systems in Israel. Through this multi-scalar analysis, we are able to describe processes at the finer patch and aspect scale and explain how they shape patterns at the dune scale. The results indicate that the dune scale exposes the differences in annual plant characteristics between mobile and fixed dunes, their slopes and patches and the reorganization and spatial distribution of annual plants within mobile and fixed dunes during the stabilization process.

Spatial Heterogeneity Effects on Meta-Community Stability of Annual Plants from a Coastal Dune Ecosystem

“…Coastal dune systems are a good study case of such scale differences, owing to a spatial heterogeneity among dune fixation states, slope aspect (windward, leeward, crest) and inter-dunal depression, and shrub-open patch types. A study conducted by Bar (Kutiel) and Dorman at Nizzanim Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) coastal nature reserve [27] showed that combining the dune, aspect, and patch scales provides a more complete picture of the processes underlying the changes in annual vegetation during dune fixation, since different processes take place at different scales and stages.…”