Lime-rich and lime-poor coastal dunes: Natural blowout activity differs with sensitivity to high N deposition through differences in P availability to the vegetation

Highlights

• Integrated study on natural blowout activity in coastal dunes with high N deposition

• Blowout activity is higher in lime-rich than in lime-poor dune grasslands.

• Abiotic factors storm activity, landscape position or texture are unimportant.

• Key factors are rabbits and pH effects on P nutrition, plant strategies and roots.

• Blowout activation is a suitable restoration method except in very lime-poor dunes.

Abstract

In industrialized countries, biodiversity is threatened by high atmospheric N deposition. In coastal dunes, blowouts can mitigate this through deposition of fresh sand, but lime-rich and lime-poor dunes may differ in blowout activity. We studied natural blowout activity and explanatory factors in 2000 and 2014 in up to 51 sites along the Dutch coast, representative for other parts of Europe. We further analyzed plant and soil characteristics related to P nutrition in seven sites in 2019 and found that blowout activity was intrinsically linked to interactions between the geosphere, pedosphere and biosphere. Blowout activity was higher in lime-rich than in lime-poor dunes, especially in 2014. This difference could not be explained by wind velocity and only partly by position in the landscape, but was associated with pH, critical N load and rabbit density. At high pH, P availability to the vegetation was low. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) plant species thus predominated, which belong to the most characteristic dune plants and may provide rabbit food of better quality than nonmycorrhizal (NM) or ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) plants. Root biomass was also low at high pH, which may reduce cohesion of the sand and increase blowout activity, especially in areas with high rabbit density. At low pH, P availability increased, which favored NM and ErM rather than AM plants, and root biomass increased, which increased stability of the blowouts. As a restoration measure, (re)activation of blowouts may improve buffer capacity, characteristic biodiversity and conservation status of coastal dune grasslands. However, lime-poor dunes are more vulnerable to acidification, increase in P availability and blowout stabilization than lime-rich dunes. In extremely lime-poor dunes, it may even be better to let vegetation develop towards Dune heathlands, which are also EU priority habitats.