The transects were started at the sea rush zone at the top of the marsh near the ridge of glacially deposited material. The first 4 transects after the initial one were at 5m intervals. The next 2 were at 10m intervals. The remaining transects were at 20m intervals.
| Species | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| Shrubby seablite | A | |||||||||||||||
| Sea Lavender | R | F | R | A | C | |||||||||||
| Sea Aster | O | |||||||||||||||
| Red Fescue | A | |||||||||||||||
| Sea Rush | R | |||||||||||||||
| Salt Marsh Grass | C | O | ||||||||||||||
| Sea Couch Grass | C | A | ||||||||||||||
| Sea Purslane | C | A | A | A | C | |||||||||||
| Scurvy Grass | O | |||||||||||||||
| Annual seablite | R | R | ||||||||||||||
| Sea Plantain | O | |||||||||||||||
| Sea Wormwood | ||||||||||||||||
| Marsh Samphire | R | A | R | A | O | R | C | R | A | A | ||||||
| Cord Grass | C | C | C | F | A | |||||||||||
| Bare ground | C | A | C | O | C | A | R | A | A | |||||||
| Water (Creek) | A |
| Distance between 2 ranging poles (m) | Angle between the 2 ranging poles (on gun clinometer) |
| 1.75 | 6 |
| 2.39 | 12 |
| 1.6 | 5 |
| 2.15 | 7 |
| 5.64 | 7 |
| 6.85 | -5 |
| 5.97 | 11 |
| 7.7 | -7 |
| 3.45 | 15 |
| 2.96 | 17 |
| 10.62 | -1 |
| 4.22 | 10 |
| 12.23 | 15 |
Samples of sand and organic material from the dunes were placed in labelled plastic bags. They were taken from the beach in front of the dunes and from each of the dunes behind the beach. We would expect the readings to become more acidic as we move inland, because as vegetation rots over time, it adds organic material (DOM) to the sand, and creates humic acids. There may be a slightly alkaline reading on the beach because shells may be incorporated and these are slightly alkaline.
The samples were tested using a testing kit provided by Fisher Scientific UK Ltd.
A glass boiling tube / test tube was borrowed from those nice ladies in the Science prep room, and 50ml (ish) of distilled / deionised water was added using a syringe provided by the kit.
A scoop of sand was added, and shaken for a minute.
A filter disc was placed in the test tube, and pushed down to remove the frass from the sample.
A few drops of the reagent / indicator solution was added.
pH READINGS
|
From the beach in front of the dunes |
7 |
| From the foredune | 7 |
| Yellow dune 1 | 6 |
| Yellow dune 2 | 6 |
| Grey dune 1 | 5.5 |
| Grey dune 2 | 5 |
These results may look a little 'fixed' but they're correct.
| Readings from Beach | |
| Temperature (degrees Celsius) | 16 |
| Moisture (percentage) | 69.8 |
| Light (percentage) | 68.7 |
| Embryo Dune | |
| Temperature | 16.2 |
| Moisture | 70.6 |
| Light | 57.9 |
| Yellow Dune | |
| Temperature | 16.4 |
| Moisture | 87 |
| Light | 56.4 |
| Grey Dune 1 | |
| Temperature | 16.4 |
| Moisture | 73.5 |
| Light | 53.7 |
| Grey Dune 2 | |
| Temperature | 16.4 |
| Moisture | 68.7 |
| Light | 71.4 |
Plants are identified in the first column, and plant abundance is measured at each transect (5m intervals) measured on the ACFOR scale.
| Species | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 (Path) | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| Bare Sand | A | A | A | R | ||||||||||||
| Moss | R | R | A | R | A | |||||||||||
| Red Fescue | A | C | O | |||||||||||||
| Lesser Hawkbit | F | A | A | O | R | |||||||||||
| Sand Sedge | ||||||||||||||||
| Sand Couch | ||||||||||||||||
| Marram Grass | A | A | A | A | C | O | C | C | O | C | C | |||||
| Common Centaury | R | R | ||||||||||||||
| Ragwort | C | O | O | R | ||||||||||||
| Lichen | A | O | R | R | ||||||||||||
| Thistle | R | C | ||||||||||||||
| Wax cap fungi | R | |||||||||||||||
| Fern | R | R | A | |||||||||||||
| Mouse eared hawkbit | R | |||||||||||||||
| Common cat's ear | R | |||||||||||||||