The Belgian sandy beach ecosystem: a review

Speybroeck, Jeroen; Bonte, Dries; Courtens, Wouter; Gheskiere, Tom; Grootaert, Patrick; Maelfait, Jean‐Pierre; Provoost, Sam; Sabbe, Koen; Stienen, Eric; Lancker, V. Van; Landuyt, Wouter Van; Vincx, Magda; Degraer, S.

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0485.2008.00232.x

Cited by 31 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…As E. maritimum is one of the more specialist species, occurring in a relatively narrow niche, habitat protection and management are important (Jukonien≐ & Stankevičiūt≐ ; Speybroeck et al . ). Therefore, beach, shingle and dune management must maintain, conserve and restore the natural values of habitats, having a full appreciation of the importance of the operation of natural processes to long‐term viability (Van der Meulen & Salman ).…”

Section: Conservationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Eryngium maritimum

Isermann

Rooney

2014

Journal of Ecology

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Summary1. This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Eryngium maritimum L. (Sea Holly) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history and conservation. 2. Eryngium maritimum is a native perennial hemicryptophyte, with a large taproot, spiny and leathery leaves and a pale bluish inflorescence. It has a more or less continuous distribution in suitable habitats along the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland up to about 55°N, but it is more scattered further north. On the west coast, it is found south of the Hebrides, and on the east coast, with some exceptions, south of Yorkshire. In Europe, it has a wide, but mainly southern temperate, European distribution along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and the Black and Azov Seas. Its northern distribution limit is at c. 60°N. 3. Eryngium maritimum grows typically on sand and shingle beaches, foredunes and yellow dunes, as well as in semi-fixed grey dunes. Its habitats have full sunlight and are more or less dry. It occurs in many coastal plant communities from the beach inland, and because of its wide European distribution, it occurs with members of several different biogeographical species groups. 4. Protected from grazing by its spininess and sclerophylly, E. maritimum is nevertheless vulnerable to direct damage by trampling. It supports few insect herbivores, probably because of chemical defences. Historically, it has had a great number of medicinal uses. 5. Eryngium maritimum is unable to withstand competition from faster and more densely growing plant species. In many coastal regions, in both temperate and mediterranean parts of Europe, it is one of the rarest and most threatened plant species, mainly because of habitat loss and land-use changes.Key-words: climatic limitation, communities, conservation, ecophysiology, geographical and altitudinal distribution, germination, herbivory, mycorrhiza, reproductive biology, soils Sea Holly. Apiaceae subfamily Saniculoideae. A long-lived, perennial herb with a long, well-developed taproot and thick and fleshy rhizomes extending laterally from buried stems. Reproductive stems 0.15-0.60 m; lower part often root-like and buried in the sand; aerial part pale below but with bluish tinge above, erect, robust, terete or sulcate, glabrous, solid and widely branched above so that the plant forms an open cushion. Basal leaves several; lamina 4-10 9 15-20 cm, leathery, glabrous, intensely glaucous, subrotund in outline and palmately 3(À5) lobed; base truncate or cordate; venation palmate and reticulate, the veins thick, prominent; margin thick, cartilaginous, with large spinose teeth; petioles about as *Nomenclature of vascular plants follows Stace (2010) ...

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Section: Conservationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Eryngium maritimum

Isermann

Rooney

2014

Journal of Ecology

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“…The model consists of three major modules: one determining the abiotic conditions of the beach, a second module predicting (changes in) abundance, species richness and biomass of eleven dominant macrobenthos species according to their envelopes, and a third module predicting the maximum potential abundance of dominant species of higher trophic levels, being the gulls Larus canus (Linnaeus) and Larus ridibundus (Linnaeus), the waders Calidris alba (Pallas) and Calidris alpina (Linnaeus), the shrimp Crangon crangon (Linnaeus) and juvenile flatfish, mainly Pleuronectes platessa (Linnaeus) (Speybroeck et al . ; Fig. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Assessing the impact of beach nourishment on the intertidal food web through the development of a mechanistic‐envelope model

Eede

Tomme

Busschere

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary1. Beach nourishment, the placement of sand onto a sediment-starved stretch of coast, is widely applied as a soft coastal protection measure because of its reduced ecological impact relative to hard coastal protection. In order to predict effects on the intertidal sandy beach ecosystem, we developed a simulation model that integrates species envelope-based projections for the dominant macrobenthos species and mechanistic food web modules for higher trophic levels. 2. Species envelopes were estimated by using Bayesian inference of species' biomass relationships according to the three determining abiotic variables: intertidal elevation, median grain size and total organic matter, obtained from multiple sampling campaigns along the Belgian coast. Maximum potential abundance of higher trophic levels represented by birds, shrimp and flatfish were estimated based on their derived trophic relationship with macrobenthos. 3. After validation, we demonstrated that unlike nourishment slope, sediment grain size strongly determines beach-level species richness and production, with strong deterioration in species richness after nourishment with coarse sediment (>300 lm). Patterns for higher trophic levels do not follow the changes in macrobenthos abundance and biomass. 4. Synthesis and applications. The optimal grain size range for nourishment of fine-grained beaches is 200-300 lm. This modelling approach shows that the impact assessment of beach nourishment needs to include the evaluation of different species richness and biomass variables. Focusing solely on the potential abundance of species from higher trophic levels might lead to deceptive conclusions due to the dominance of opportunistic prey species.

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“…Benthic diatoms are the dominant primary producers and food source in many intertidal, soft‐sediment environments as well as on rocky shores (Thompson et al , Tang and Kristensen , Speybroeck et al ). Diatom communities play a pivotal role in controlling energy flow, nutrient fluxes and productivity in these systems (Underwood and Kromkamp , De Troch et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stressor‐induced biodiversity gradients: revisiting biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships

Mensens

Laender

Janssen

et al. 2014

Oikos

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Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments typically inspect functioning in randomly composed communities, representing broad gradients of taxonomic richness. We tested if the resulting evenness gradients and evenness-functioning relationships reflect those found in communities facing evenness loss caused by anthropogenic stressors. To this end, we exposed marine benthic diatom communities to a series of treatments with the herbicide atrazine, and analysed the relationship between the resulting gradients of evenness and ecosystem functioning (primary production, energy content and sediment stabilization). Atrazine exposure resulted in narrower evenness gradients and steeper evenness-functioning relations than produced by the design of random community assembly. The disproportionately large decrease in functioning following atrazine treatment was related to selective atrazine effects on the species that contributed most to the ecosystem functions considered. Our findings demonstrate that the sensitivity to stress and the contribution to ecosystem functioning at the species level should be both considered to understand biodiversity and ecosystem functioning under anthropogenic stress.

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The Belgian sandy beach ecosystem: a review

Cited by 31 publications

References 55 publications

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Eryngium maritimum

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Eryngium maritimum

Assessing the impact of beach nourishment on the intertidal food web through the development of a mechanistic‐envelope model

Stressor‐induced biodiversity gradients: revisiting biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships

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