Landscape-scale environmental drivers of coastal dune mobility

Coastal dune habitats provide a diversity of habitats for a number of rare and threatened plants and animals. The movement of windblown sand within these dune systems is critical to maintaining a high level of biodiversity as it creates a mosaic of habitats for plants and animals to live.

The conservation status of mobile coastal sand dunes in the UK has declined dramatically in the last 50 years, making it a habitat in urgent need of attention. As a result, managers of coastal sand dunes, including Natural England and National Resource Wales, have implemented a number of habitat restoration interventions including the removal of invasive species and mature vegetation. The most efficient strategy to improve the short-term mobility of sand has been the large-scale removal of vegetation and excavation of trough and bowl-shaped depressions, in locations where mobile dunes previously existed. This technique, however, is also the most expensive. Additionally, evidence from similar dune remobilisation efforts in the Netherlands and Canada have reported that the mobility of these dunes is not sustained after management interventions, resulting in revegetation. This lack of sustained mobility has been attributed to a lack of understanding of the natural processes that drive dune mobility.

Using a combination of remote sensing and in-situ measurements, this program of study will statistically identify the landscape-scale factors that correlate with mobile dunes in the UK landscape. This information will then be discussed and disseminated with key stakeholders in the coastal dune environment. The knowledge gained from the research will be used to guide decision making with regards to the technique, location, and scale of dune rehabilitation interventions throughout the UK and around the world.

This project will enable an improved understanding of the landscape-scale drivers of coastal dune mobility, which will directly benefit a range of non-academic end users, including:

1) Government departments and advisers including Natural England, Natural Resource Wales, Scottish National Heritage and Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland).

2) Councils with responsibilities for dune management including Sefton Council, Fylde Borough Council and East Sussex County Council.

3) Non-government agencies who are key landowners and stakeholders of coastal sand dunes, for example, The National Trust at Sandscale Haws NNR (Cumbria) and Murlough Bay (Northern Ireland), The Wildlife Trusts (e.g. at Red Rocks, Wirral and Holme Dunes, Norfolk) and the Golf Environmental Association (GEO).

4) Landowners at the coast with an interest in increasing local biodiversity, for example Ministry of Defence sites (e.g. Magilligan Dunes, Northern Ireland), Territorial Army Voluntary Reserves sites (e.g. Altcar on the Sefton Coast, north west England), private golf courses and airports.

5) Environmental consultants with expertise in coastal dune rehabilitation including Kenneth Pye Associates, Royal Haskoning DHV (Netherlands), Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) and Exo Environmental. Consultants are regularly invited to advise on dune restoration projects with the stakeholders listed in points 1-4.

These beneficiaries will gain a more complete understanding of mobile dune mapping and its statistical accuracy, an increased knowledge of the geomorphic processes that are presently creating mobile dunes, increased knowledge of the environmental factors that correlate with mobile dunes (e.g. steep slopes, fast near-surface wind speed) and a tool, specifically developed in consideration of land managers, to spatially model where dune restoration interventions to create mobile dunes are most likely to succeed. This research provides the statistical methods for land managers to make informed decisions on the site selection for restoration activities, which will result in mobile dune habitats that persist longer and require less future interventions.