Describe and Explain the Findings of the Vegetation

Describe and explain the findings of the plant life quadrats on a transect on Studland sand dunes. Figure 1 Figure 1 The results of the plant life quadrats along a transect on Studland sand dunes showed that the amount of vegetation increase and changed, era the percentage of supernumerary ground decreased as the sampling sites increased. The reasons after part this smoke be explained by clarifying what a typical transect is, jump with low embryo dunes near the shoreline and much t completely(prenominal)er mature dunes several snow meters back from the shore (as indicated in Figure 1).As you follow the transect from the beach, the dunes get cured and the vegetation changes, gradually coving more and more bargon sand and increase in height. A graph to show % vegetation cover on Studland Dunes A graph to show % vegetation cover on Studland Dunes The entropy suggests that at the first sampling point that in that respect is no vegetation present. This can be justified by the feature that the ingest was interpreted just as the dunes started on the embryo dune.Therefore reasons for no vegetation is that there are extreme conditions at this point very in high spirits pH values (8+) rapid drainage no humus high fart speed and lots of brininess spray, all of which bring forth it intimately unaccepted for vegetation to grown and the colonies, furthermore this dune can be vaporize as quickly as they form. From the graph we can see that sample site 2, 3 and 4 that is on average 98% bare ground and some vegetation is appearing as is suggests there is 2% marram supergrass, and at sample site 5 and 6 have a 100% cover in marram grass.I think the reasons for this is because there is sparse vegetation it must be a fore dune and sample 5 and 6 might be on a yellow dune. The percentages can be explained by using knowledge of the fore and dunes which are quasi(prenominal) except for the their maturity (yellow dunes being older and slightly more developed). Thus, the vegetation has started to grow there because there is reduced winds speed (although its still high, marram grass has long deep roots), decreased pH values (marram grass is salt tolerant), water is lightly more retentive (marram grass has inrolled leaves to reduce moisture loss), some humus is formed and the dune surface is continuously cut away and replaced by new sand (when t is replaced it accumulated roughly vegetation, however strangely marram grass thrives on being buried in sand). At sample sites 7 to 10 the graph suggest that many an(prenominal) plants are co-existing and are also closer together which is suggested by the fact that there is 0% for bare ground, also the height of vegetation increases to 90cm, which are all characteristics of grey dunes.The larger variety, and the densely population vegetation can be explained by the features of the dune, which is a lower pH, less wind ( cheer by seaward dunes), therefore less mobile sand, thus sand no long-run accumulating and higher humus content all of which combine together to make a better habitat for vegetation. Lastly sample sites 11-16 must be the mature dunes, however the graph also indicates this as almost all those samples have a large percentage of heather, which is extremely common in mature dunes.Mature dunes are perfect for acid loving plants (like heather) and a wide variety co-exist together, in mature dunes there is normally acidic soils, increased organic mater content (humus), rich in nutrition and shelter developed for seaward dunes. In sample site 14 it is almost an anomaly for mature dunes, in retrospect the sample could have been in a dune slack as it is a 100% moss, because in dune slacks you find moisture loving plants, which can defy in damp low lying hollows, when there is a high water table in winter and varying pH habitat, all of which moss could with stand.Overall the graph to showing the percentage of vegetation cover and height on Studland Dunes can be exp lained by understanding the transect of the beach, as vegetation changes along the transect according to the pH, wind condition, the soils moisture, and all other factors which have been said to a higher place depending on the dunes maturity.