What are sand dunes like?
Most sand dune systems appear chaotic at first sight, but on close inspection most have fairly clear topographic and ecological zones. These are well documented in textbooks form the basis for the various models of psammoseres. A psammosere is the succession of vegetation that occurs in sand dunes given a long enough period of time. Most textbook models make the assumption that the age of sand dunes increases with distance inland from the high water mark and show seres (vegetation stages) running from the pioneer community on the strandline (high water mark – HWM) through to the climax vegetation some distance inland. The diagram shows the common features of a typical sand dune system. If you move the mouse along the base of the dunes from left to right the images on the right will change giving you a visual impression of each part of the system.
