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Accretion
Process of sediment accumulation
Backdune
Dune inland of foredunes
Backshore
Shore between high water and coastal edge
Blowout
Wind-eroded area in sand surface
Community
Plants and/or animals living together under characteristic, recognisable conditions
Dominant winds
Winds of greatest effect on maritime accretion or erosion
Dune
Hill or ridge of wind-blown sand
Ecology
Study of how living things relate to their environment or surroundings
Ecosystem
The totality in which any living organism finds itself
Ecotone
Area between zones which may in itself constitute a zone with its own communities
Embryo dune
Small, often ephemeral sand mound on the backshore, which in a prograding system may develop into a new foredune
Fixed dune
Dune with a surface stabilised by vegetation
Foredune
Dune which lies nearest the sea Foreshore Shore between high and low water
Frontshore system
Dune system, usually prograding, which projects seaward from the main shoreline
Grey dune
Well-vegetated fixed dune with mosses, lichens, grasses and herbs
Habitat
The recognisable area or type of environment in which an organism normally lives
Hindshore System
Dune system which extends inland from the shoreline
Intertidal
Between high and low tide lines; legally, between high water mark spring tides and low water mean ordinary tides
Leach
The process by which percolating water removes nutrients from the soil
Littoral
Of or existing on a shore; intertidal
Machair
Maritime sand plain, typically calcareous (as found in northwest Scotland)
Marine
Of or pertaining to the sea
Maritime
Pertaining to the shore; legally, above high water mark spring tides
Mobile dune
Dune with an open plant community or bare of vegetation which tends to erode or move downwind
Natural succession
The process by which one community of organisms gives way to another in an orderly series from colonisers to climax
Neap tide
Tide of least range
Offset
Shoot that develops at the base of a plant which can root to form a new plant
Pan
In a salt marsh, a sunken area having poor drainage and highly saline soil
Prevailing winds
Winds of greatest frequency, often but not always the dominant winds
Prograding
Developing along or into open water
Rhizome
Fleshy root-ball from which roots and side shoots develop
Salt marsh
Intertidal area having characteristic vegetation adapated to saline soils and to periodic submergence in sea water
Slack
Area within dune system where the surface is at or near the ground water level
Spring tide
Tide of greatest range
Strandline
High tide line where debris collects
Sublittoral
Below the tides; legally, below low water mark mean ordinary tides
Thatching
Covering of brushwood laid down to protect dune grasses and help trap sand
Tiller (v)
To send forth shoots from the base; typically of grass which is mown or grazed
Water table
Level below which the soil is waterlogged
Yellow dune
Incompletely vegetated dune with bare sand exposed between plant stems