Monitoring Coastal Sand Dune Vegetation Communities for Conservation Handbook/Manual
- Author
- Helga Küchly, Stephen Hartley
- Year
- 2006
- Publisher / Organisation
- Victoria University of Wellington
- Pages
- 86
- Keywords
- Coastal foredune, handbook, monitoring method, vegetation, geomorphology, plant species, conservation, Wellington Conservancy
- Summary
- Handbook for the Wellington Conservancy Coastal sand dunes are a distinctive feature of the New Zealand landscape, but they are becoming increasingly rare due to human induced alternations like coastal development and introduction of non-indigenous species. Owing to the general lack of legal protection of coastal areas it is not surprising that a large number of plant taxa of conservation concern appear to be in this ecosystem. While the identification of key conservation sites and management recommendations has recently been completed in a baseline study by Milne and Sawyer (2002), field records are erratically distributed over the area and much collected data has become obsolete. Thus, new field surveys should be undertaken to determine the occurrence of sand dune species and to allow the implementation of adequate conservation actions. Furthermore, to allow comparison of these data in a temporal and spatial manner general standards in how to obtain the species information have to be set. The purpose of this handbook is to provide detailed guidance on the field survey method and plant determination with reference in particular to the Wellington Conservancy. It is designed to convey the overall changing physical and vegetation structure of sand dunes, with an emphasis on coastal foredunes. In addition the handbook gives detailed information about the sand dune ecosystem in general (geomorphology and vegetation), the threats that it faces, information about the conservation value, as well as detailed information about the plant species occurring in the Wellington Conservancy.