https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-019-00780-1
The relationships among some chemical and physical soil traits
and coastal dune plant species in Central Black Sea Region of Turkey
Senay Ulu Agır1 · Burak Surmen2 · Hamdi Guray Kutbay1
Received: 28 June 2018 / Accepted: 24 January 2019 / Published online: 15 February 2019 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2019
Abstract
Coastal dunes are very prone to environmental changes and they are very vulnerable ecosystems. Coastal dune vegetation in the north of Turkey cover a comparatively wide area (149 km) and they include most of the characteristic coastal dune zones. However, they are threatened by disturbance factors and most significant of these are inundation and dune erosion especially in drift line. In the present study, the relationships between some chemical and physical traits and coastal dune species in characteristic dune zones were investigated in Central Black Sea Region of Turkey. Soil reaction (pH), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), organic matter content (% OM), potassium ion (K+) concentration, bicarbonate ion (HCO
3−) concentration and
coarse and very fine sand contents were found to be the most significant abiotic factors along seashore to inland gradient in studied coastal dunes. Medium sand and OM contents were associated with main and transitional dunes, while pH and SAR were associated with drift line and embryonic dune zones.
Keywords Central Black Sea Region · Coastal dunes · Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) · Dune chemical traits ·
Local abiotic factors · Physical traits · Seashore-inland
1 Introduction
Coastal dune ecosystems are usually narrow, long and run along the coastline and despite this narrow width, an envi-ronmental gradient from seashore to inland are developed along this strip (Carranza et al. 2008). They have outstand-ing characteristics because they show high environmental heterogeneity and they are highly variable due to substrate structure, burial by sand, the porous nature of sands, and little or no organic matter (Acosta et al. 2005, 2009; Altay and Ozturk 2012). Distance to inland from seaside controls many environmental factors mainly soil traits along temporal
and spatial factors and this gradient leads to the zonation of coastal dune plant communities (Monserrat et al. 2012; Angiolini et al. 2013; Jiménez-Alfaro et al. 2015).
Forey et al. (2008) stated that abiotic factors dramati-cally merged and changed within a short distance even in local areas. The underlying causes of plant zonation still remain controversial. Coastal dunes have reflected the natu-ral variation in abiotic factors that drive community change (Carboni et al. 2011; Santoro et al. 2012). Several authors implied that the local micro-environmental factors such as structure of the plant communities, salt spray, morphology and micro-topography of the dune, organic matter content, pH and electrical conductivity have been shifted along a gradient from coastal to inland dune regions and the zona-tion of plant communities across this gradient depends on species tolerances to these factors (Lane et al. 2008; Maun
2009; Fenu et al. 2012, 2013).
There were many studies about the determination of most effective chemical and physical traits in coastal dunes and these traits may be greatly changed even at a local scale (Demirkesen et al. 2008; Lane et al. 2008; Ozcan et al. 2010; Fenu et al. 2012; Ruocco et al. 2014). Coastal sand dunes cover about 845 km in Turkey and coastal dunes in Central Black Sea Region constitute to 18% (reduced from 181 to
* Burak Surmen
buraksurmen@gmail.com Senay Ulu Agır senay.ulu@hotmail.com Hamdi Guray Kutbay hguray@omu.edu.tr
1 Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, University of Ondokuz Mayıs, 55139 Samsun, Turkey 2 Kamil Ozdag Science Faculty, Department of Biology,
Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, 70200 Karaman, Turkey
149 km) of coastal dunes. The remarkable originality of its floristic settlement is testified by many vegetation studies. All of these are emphasized that the Black Sea should be considered as a priority target for the protection of psam-mofil vegetation. (Marcenò et al. 2018; Tzonev et al. 2005; Umanets and Solomakha 1999). The Black Sea is defined as an enclosed system due to the limited water renewal and exchange with the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean through the Istanbul (Bosphorous) Strait and Black Sea ecosystem is rather vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. However, coastal dune vegetation has been threatened by several factors such as inundation, sand erosion, sand extrac-tion for building, ship-based polluextrac-tion, illegal urbanism, and agricultural activities and require special protection due to this unique property in Black Sea Region. Coastal dunes in Central Black Sea Region are of special importance due to their vulnerability to global climatic change according to tide gauge measurement and mean sea-level rise was calcu-lated 2.2 ± 2.5 mm/year (Samsunlu et al. 2002; Demirkesen et al. 2008; Sertel et al. 2008; Ozturk et al. 2013). This study aimed (1) to investigate the changes in chemical and physical traits of coastal sand dunes along seashore to inland gradi-ent, (2) to determine the relationships between the chemical or physical traits and plant species in characteristic coastal dune zones.
2 Materials and methods
2.1 The study areaThe study area includes coastal line in western and eastern part of Central Black Sea Region of Turkey (41°29′27ʺN and 36°33′12ʺE) (Figs. 1, 2). The study area covers a 149 km area. Seven localities were chosen which included
most of the characteristic coastal dune zones namely upper beach or drift line (A zone), embryonic (or primary) dune (B zone), main dune (C zone), and transitional (D zone) and stabilized dune (E zone) zones. Characteristic species of coastal dune zones are given in Fig. 3.
A climatic gradient was formed from eastern to west-ern part of the study area due to the differences in mean annual precipitation (MAP). Tekkeköy district constitute to the boundary between the eastern and western part. The eastern part of Tekkeköy is more humid than the western part and mean annual precipitation (MAP) was 922.1 mm in eastern part, while the MAP in the western part of Tekkeköy was 672.4 mm. The western part has a Mediterranean-type climate and summer drought occurs from June to August, but summer drought was not observed in the eastern part of the Tekkeköy and oceanic climate is seen. The mean annual temperature in the western and eastern part was 13.5 and
Fig. 1 The studied coastal dune vegetation in Central Black Sea Region of Turkey
15.1 °C, respectively. Summer rainfall (PE) was 105.0 and 173.7 mm, in the western and eastern part, respectively (Karaer et al. 1997; Yalcin et al. 2011; Agir et al. 2014).
2.2 Chemical traits
Coastal dune communities have been linearly distributed along the coastline. Five transects perpendicular to the sea-shore was laid out, about 5 km apart from each other from the drift line to stabilized dune zone in each locality. Relevé was determined by minimal area method (Braun-Blanquet
1964). Seven 2 × 2 m2 relevés were taken from upper beach
or drift line, embryonic dune, main dune, transitional and
stabilized dune zones from each locality from May to August and floristic data were recorded in these quadrats. Relevé size compatible with visual estimation of cover and relevés were selected according to included characteristic dune zones and characteristic species of each coastal dune zone. In each relevé, all the vascular plant species were recorded as presence/absence and soil samples were collected from the middle of the relevé. Presence/absence of plant data ensured to attenuate the abundance effect among samples, mostly by evidencing the species distribution among different habitat types, especially if a species is much more abundant than other (Carboni et al. 2010; Angiolini et al. 2017). The cover of each species was estimated using the Braun-Blanquet
Fig. 3 Characteristic species of coastal dune zones along transect
Table 1 The results of chemical traits (mean ± SE) in each zone
Means followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level using Tukey’s HSD test Upper beach or drift
line dune zone Embryonic dune zone Main dune zone Transitional dune zone Stabilized dune zone East coastal dune zones
K 0.120 ± 0.041a 0.093 ± 0.032ab 0.074 ± 0.021ab 0.061 ± 0.001b 0.042 ± 0.008a
Cl 1455 ± 596a 1147 ± 444a 1659 ± 695a 1136 ± 447a 1124 ± 647a
N–NO3 68.60 ± 14.17a 69.60 ± 14.99a 70.95 ± 14.96a 73.95 ± 14.90a 43.84 ± 20.80a
HCO3 385.1 ± 121.2a 371.1 ± 123.7a 352.4 ± 118.0ab 355.7 ± 123.5ab 325.6 ± 182.2b
OM 0.244 ± 0.037a 0.221 ± 0.047a 0.282 ± 0.081a 0.297 ± 0.061a 0.261 ± 0.047a
EC 11.849 ± 3.942a 12.611 ± 5.328a 11.738 ± 4.169a 11.354 ± 4.610a 11.350 ± 0.004a
pH 9.163 ± 0.118a 8.523 ± 0.115b 8.226 ± 0.093bc 8.000 ± 0.083c 8.141 ± 0.030bc
SAR 1.014 ± 0.400a 0.335 ± 0.130b 0.208 ± 0.089b 0.155 ± 0.060b 0.144 ± 0.082b
West coastal dune zones
K 0.108 ± 0.024a 0.088 ± 0.025ab 0.118 ± 0.039a 0.058 ± 0.005b 0.070 ± 0.019ab
Cl 1643 ± 554a 1486 ± 476a 1469 ± 473a 1377 ± 471a 1838 ± 707a
N–NO3 60.67 ± 18.72a 77.74 ± 24.31a 74.47 ± 20.02a 71.06 ± 19.59a 72.20 ± 12.31a
HCO3 479.4 ± 141.6a 414.1 ± 123.1ab 328.1 ± 102.4b 409.5 ± 119.9ab 410.0 ± 120.8ab
OM 0.173 ± 0.040b 0.278 ± 0.049b 0.296 ± 0.055b 0.499 ± 0.061b 1.086 ± 0.255a
EC 17.547 ± 5.688a 11.819 ± 3.200a 14.511 ± 4.372a 11.117 ± 4.353a 12.621 ± 4.549a
pH 8.961 ± 0.163a 8.671 ± 0.102ab 8.383 ± 0.101bc 8.029 ± 0.059 cd 7.796 ± 0.068d
(1964) scale. Transect length varied from 25 m to 230 m depending on dune morphology (Acosta et al. 2000; Carboni et al. 2009, 2011; Fenu et al. 2012; Agir et al. 2014).
Sand samples were taken from each relevé up to 20 cm depth. For chemical analysis, the samples were air-dried, crushed and sieved using a 2-mm mesh. pH was meas-ured in sand:water extracts at 1:2.5 (w:v) with a Beck-man pH meter. For determination of electrical conduc-tivity (dS m−1), an aqueous extract was obtained through
an orbital shaker at 120–140 cycles/min and electrical conductivity was determined using a Jenway analyser. 25 g of dry sand samples was extracted with 100 ml of
neutral (pH 7.0) 1.0 mol l−1 ammonium acetate. Na+ and
K+ (meq l−1) concentrations were determined using a
Perkin Elmer atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Ca2+
and Mg2+ (meq l−1) concentrations were determined using
EDTA (disodium dihydrogen ethylenediaminetetraac-etate) and murexide indicator for calcium and eriochrome black indicator for calcium and magnesium together HCO3– (meq l−1) was determined by titration with
sul-phuric acid. Cl– (meq l−1) concentration was determined
by gravimetric method. Sodium absorption rate (SAR)
was calculated using the following equation (Kilinc et al.
2011):
(Hussein and Rabenhorst 2001).
Organic matter (OM) content was determined by Walk-ley–Black method (Bayraklı 1987). The taxonomic nomen-clature follows Guner et al. (2012).
SAR= Na∕ √
(Ca2+ Mg2)
2.3 Physical traits
Mesh analysis was made according to Wentworth (1922) using 0.045–2-mm sieves. Data obtained were processed following Folk and Ward (1957) to determine the mean grain size. Mean grain size was measured using standard sieves (Fenu et al. 2013).
Data were subjected to canonical correspondence anal-ysis (CCA) (Jongman et al. 1995) using Environmental Community Analysis (ECOM) software (Henderson and Seaby 1999) to find the relationships between plant species
in each zone and physical and chemical traits of sand. Two variables (sand deposition and granulometry) were log-transformed before analyses to meet assumptions of para-metric tests (Forey et al. 2008).
3 Results
In eastern and western parts of the study area, pH was found to be decreasing, while organic matter content was increased from A to E zones. Significant differences were found with respect to soil pH and OM contents among dune zones in eastern coastal dune communities. Sig-nificant differences were also found with respect to pH and organic matter content among dune zones in western coastal dune communities. The changes in K (ppm) con-centrations, EC and SAR among coastal dune zones were similar to pH. K+ and HCO
3− concentrations and SAR
were also significantly changed among the studied coastal dune zones. The highest K+ (ppm) concentrations were
found in A and C zones in eastern and western part of the study area, respectively. HCO3− concentrations were
high in A zone in both eastern and western coastal dune communities. The highest SAR values were found in A zone for eastern and western coastal dune communities (Table 1; Figs. 4, 5).
Significant differences were not found with respect to Cl−, NO
3–N, and EC among dune zones in eastern
and western coastal dunes. The highest EC values were found in A and E zones in western and eastern dunes,
respectively. NO3–N concentrations were high in D zone in eastern coastal dunes, while B zone in western coastal dunes had the highest NO3–N (ppm) concentrations. C
zone in eastern coastal dunes had highest Cl− (ppm)
con-centrations while E zone in western coastal dunes had highest Cl− (ppm) concentrations (Table 1, Figs. 4, 5).
In eastern coastal dunes, significant differences were found for coarse sand, fine sand and very fine sand contents among dune zones, while in western coastal dunes, signifi-cant differences were found among dune zones with respect to coarse sand content (Table 2). In western coastal dunes, very coarse sand, coarse sand and medium sand contents were found to be higher than the eastern coastal dunes. In eastern coastal dunes, fine sand and very fine sand contents were found to be higher than the western coastal dunes (Table 2, Fig. 6).
Significant differences were not found regarding fineness modules among dune zones for eastern and western coastal communities (Table 2). However, significant differences were found with respect to wind speed between eastern and western coastal dunes. Fineness module of eastern coastal dunes was found to be higher than the western coastal dunes (Fig. 7). Wind speed of eastern coastal dunes found to be higher than the western coastal dunes (Table 3; Fig. 8).
Similar and different features of dune zones for eastern and western coastal communities were described according to statistical analyses (Table 4).
Intra-set correlation coefficients showed that all the chemical and physical traits were significant except for EC, medium and fine sand content. OM content,
Table 2 The results of mesh and grain size analysis (mean ± SE) in each zone
Means followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level using Tukey’s HSD test Upper beach or drift
line dune zone Embryonic dune zone Main dune zone Transitional dune zone Stabilized dune zone East coastal dune zones
Sand type
Very coarse (%) – – – – –
Coarse (%) 0.120 ± 0.028ab 0.010 ± 0.004b 0.023 ± 0.015b 0.518 ± 0.164a 0.510 ± 0.254a Medium (%) 1.158 ± 0.278a 1.138 ± 0.101a 0.303 ± 0.047b 1.195 ± 0.150a 1.620 ± 0.064a Fine (%) 61.408 ± 2.411a 54.010 ± 1.946ab 46.305 ± 2.129b 53.670 ± 1.381ab 52.920 ± 0.098ab Very fine (%) 37.045 ± 2.293b 44.698 ± 1.834b 53.473 ± 2.211a 43.843 ± 1.455b 43.855 ± 0.701b Fineness module 2.187 ± 0.284a 1.910 ± 0.190a 1.847 ± 0.094a 1.717 ± 0.023a 1.753 ± 0.088a West coastal dune zones
Sand type
Very coarse (%) 5.630 ± 3.014a 2.590 ± 0.878a 0.335 ± 0.159a – –
Coarse (%) 29.540 ± 9.330a 15.377 ± 6.751ab 7.770 ± 2.428ab 1.650 ± 0.620b 0.517 ± 0.125b Medium (%) 4.723 ± 2.754a 2.570 ± 1.625a 4.340 ± 2.745a 6.180 ± 2.214a 2.967 ± 1.309a Fine (%) 42.797 ± 8.350a 52.193 ± 2.368a 49.490 ± 12.186a 53.270 ± 6.240a 41.057 ± 3.275a Very fine (%) 19.113 ± 6.708a 27.870 ± 6.323a 26.947 ± 5.462a 28.003 ± 2.953a 35.113 ± 8.401a Fineness module 1.575 ± 0.076a 1.545 ± 0.038a 1.628 ± 0.072a 1.595 ± 0.045a 1.560 ± 0.056a
HCO3− concentration, pH and SAR were found to be
sig-nificant in axis 1, while K+ concentration and coarse sand
content were significant in axis 2 in eastern part of the study area. pH, OM, very coarse and coarse sand con-tents were found to be significant in axis 1, while K+ and
HCO3− concentrations, coarse and very fine sand contents,
and SAR were significant in axis 2 in western part of the study area (Tables 5, 6). In general, medium sand and OM contents were associated with main and transitional dunes, while pH and SAR were associated with drift line and embryonic dune zones in the study area (Figs. 9, 10).
4 Discussion
CCA analysis revealed that pH, SAR, OM content (%), K concentration, and coarse and very fine sand contents were significant in zonation along seashore to inland gradient in the study area. There were some differences between eastern and western part of the study area with respect to soil traits. There were significant differences among dune zones in western part, while no significant differences were found among dune zones in eastern part with respect to OM content. Similarly, medium and fine sand contents significantly differed among dune zones
in eastern part, while they did not significantly differ in the western part. These regional differences were mainly
controlled by rainfall and wind speed. Annual precipita-tion is higher in the eastern part of the study area than the western part and OM was more slowly decomposed in all the dune zones. Wind speed was higher in eastern part than the western part and medium and fine sand contents in coastal sand dunes were primarily controlled by wind speed in a particular region (Forey et al. 2008; Maun 2009; Sabatier et al. 2009; Kumar and Hota 2014). It has been found that there were significant correlations between fine-ness module (granulometry) and wind speed. Wind speed was higher in eastern part than western part and very fine sand content were found to be significant in western part. However, very fine sand content was not significant in eastern part of the study area. It is, therefore, reasonable to suggest that the particle size gradient was driven by wind, and that the associated variation in soil nitrogen and water availability was an indirect result of increased leaching caused by larger particles (Lortie and Cushman
2007). Particule size is one of the most significant factors on coastal dune morphology (Sỳkora et al. 2004; Spanou et al. 2006; Ozcan et al. 2010). Higher contents of fine particles indicated higher soil retention of nutrients and salts in contrast to the higher losses by leaching found in coarse sand content. The high coarse sand content and the low content of fine particles also lead to the higher percolation of tidal water (Vallés et al. 2015). Wind speed can also indirectly influence the plant community by alter-ing the coarseness of the sand because winds move larger grains of sand shorter distances than finer particles, and on the beach and in the aeolian system, the pattern in grain size distribution was complicated by the presence of vegetation, bioturbation, surface markings, ripples, swash bars and runnels, each characterized by a change in sediment type, and by admixture with freshly transported fluvial and aeolian material. The lack of very fine sand may probably be due to high wind speed (Barbour and Diaz 1973; Abuodha 2003; Ozcan et al. 2010; Duran and Moore 2013). Achillea maritima (L.) Ehrend. & Y.P. Guo subsp. maritima was found to be associated with coarse sand content in the study area. Achillea maritima subsp. maritima is very resistant to the changes in dune morphol-ogy and the existence of this species in a particular zone in coastal dunes is the indication of a developed texture.
It has been found that pH decreased, while organic matter content was increased from seashore to inland gradient in the studied coastal dunes. Several authors reported that pH significantly decreased from coastal to inland zones (Wilson and Sykes 1999; Sykora et al. 2004; Isermann 2011; Emilio et al. 2006; Forey et al. 2008), whereas organic matter con-tent increased (Lane et al. 2008; Acosta et al. 2009). Lane et al. (2008) emphasized that salt spray causes osmotic stress to the vegetation and exacerbates the low-nutrient condi-tions in drift line. However, at the inland end of the dune
Fig. 7 The changes in fineness module in eastern and western parts of the study area
Table 3 Mean wind speed values of the study area by one-way ANOVA test
East coastal dunes West coastal dunes P value
Wind 2.167 ± 0.083 1.483 ± 0.019 0.001
Fig. 8 The changes of wind speed in eastern and western parts of the study area
gradient, organic matter content was high, while pH was low. This was correlated with plant species less tolerant of salt spray and sand burial at the inland. Plant species especially in drift line were found in harsh environmental conditions (Fenu et al. 2012; Attorre et al. 2013). In the most stressful part, embryonic dunes is developed, composed of specific herbaceous pioneer species, mainly annuals and perennial rhizomatous grasses adapted to the disturbance of waves and winter storms, high rates of burial and salinity of soil and air. Coastal dune soils further from the coast acidify due to decreased marine aerosol deposition and continuous carbon-ate leaching during development phase of coastal dune soils enhanced by release of humic acids with high organic mat-ter concentrations (Wilson and Sykes 1999; Angiolini et al.
2013; Vallés et al. 2015). Maun (2009) and Ruocco et al. (2014) reported that the pH decrease along seashore-inland gradient is mainly due to the reduction of the deposition of the marine aerosol and consequently vegetation is produced organic acids. Ciccarelli (2015) emphasized that black dunes are progressively less exposed to harsh environmental con-strains. Low pH in coastal dunes might be attributed to the deposited sediments and low OM content in seashore zones in coastal habitats and soil variables especially soil pH play a main role in driving plant species composition on coastal sand dunes (Pan et al. 2016; Angiolini et al. 2017). OM plays a primary role in the aggregation of sand particles and makes available many nutrients for plants (Álvarez-Rogel et al. 2007; Lane et al. 2008; Farrag 2012; Hwang et al.
2016). It has been found that pH was associated with drift line and primary dunes, while OM content was associated with fixed coastal dunes with herbaceous vegetation, and dune grasslands in the study area. Ozcan et al. (2010) indi-cated the presence of organic-rich clay coatings on the stable dunes where they have contact with the salt swamps which seems to be responsible for variations in dune morphology and volume.
HCO3− concentration was also found to be significant
and HCO3− concentrations in transitional and fixed dune
zones were lower than drift line. Inundation in low-lying areas creates alkaline conditions which can decrease the accumulation of organic matter. K+ concentrations were
higher in drift line and potassium plays an important role on osmotic balance in plants (Sival and Grootjans 1996; Barrett-Mold and Burningham 2009; Willis et al. 2016). EC was not found to be significant on the contrary to sev-eral studies (Isermann 2005; Lane et al. 2008; Ozcan et al.
2010). Ruocco et al. (2014) emphasized that EC was not a significant abiotic factor in shaping coastal dune com-munities. One of the main characteristics of coastal dunes is their high environmental heterogeneity associated with the variability of the plant communities and soil nutri-ents which are spatially discrete at the macro-, meso- and micro-scales in coastal dune ecosystems (Jones et al. 2008; Fenu et al. 2012; Ciccarelli 2015; Willis et al. 2016).
It has been reported that coastal dunes were usually defi-cient in nitrogen (Lortie and Cushman 2007; Maun 2009). In contrast to other studies, high N–NO3 concentrations were found in the present study. This can be explained by
Table 4 Similar and different features of dune zones for eastern and western coastal communities
Eastern part Western part
Organic matter Significant differences were not found among dune zones Significant differences were found among dune zones HCO3 Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were found among dune zones pH Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were found among dune zones SAR Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were found among dune zones K Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were found among dune zones Coarse sand Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were found among dune zones Medium sand Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were not found among dune zones Fine sand Significant differences were found among dune zones Significant differences were not found among dune zones
Wind Wind speed higher than western part Wind lower than eastern part
Annual rainfall High Lower than eastern part
Climate type Oceanic type Mediterranean type
Table 5 Intra-set correlation coefficients of chemical and physical traits in eastern part of study area
Significant correlations were shown in bold
OM K NO3–N HCO3 EC PH SAR Coarse sand Medium sand
Axis 1 0.636 0.398 − 0.428 0.737 − 0.122 − 0.762 − 0.651 − 0.188 0.412 Axis 2 0.386 0.576 0.041 0.277 0.191 0.308 0.133 − 0.716 0.310
association with symbiotic microorganisms in the rhizos-phere. The increase in N–NO3 content was related to the
existence of nitrogen-fixing Elaeagnus rhamnoides (L.) A. Nelson subsp. rhamnoides in E zone in the study area (Jones et al. 2008). N–NO3 concentration was also found to be high in embryonic dune zone (B zone) and this may be probably related to the existence of Ammophila arenaria (L.) Link subsp. arundinacea H. Lindb. Fil. in B zone. The tussock of this species can be an important nitrogen source during grey dune development as decaying material (Provoost 2004).
Abiotic variables (i.e., pH, OM content and grain size) govern the micro-topography of the coastal dunes, and the changes in such variables establish various microhabitats along the coastal dune ecosystems (Álvarez-Rogel et al.
2007; Ciccarelli 2015). pH, grain size, K+ concentration,
HCO3− concentration, SAR and OM contents were found to
be the most significant abiotic variables in the study area. Disturbance factors were significant to explain the differ-ences among characteristic dune zones at the local scale (Forey et al. 2008). Silan et al. (2017) also emphasized that coastal habitats are highly sensitive to natural and antropo-genic disturbance factors and pH, grain size and OM content affect the structure and functioning of coastal dune plants. Inundation (2.22–21.44 cm) and sand erosion (and accre-tion) were found to be one of the most significant stress factors in the study area (Figs. 11, 12). The study area were classified into four different classes with respect to severity of coastal erosion namely low (1.15–3.13 m/year), moder-ate (8.31–11.88 m/year), severe (17.2 m/year) erosion and (2.56 m/year) accretion classes, respectively (Apaydin et al. 2009; Agır et al. 2017). It has been pointed out that an increase in sea-level rise and in the frequency and inten-sity of extreme events associated with sea levels resulted in a significant increase in the number and severity of flood events and erosion. Severe coastal erosion and accelerated dynamics on coastal sand dunes caused increase in the dif-ferences among plant communities (Ondiviela et al. 2014; Carlo et al. 2017).
5 Conclusion
Sea-level rise makes the study area very vulnerable to global climatic changes in the next future. Owing to inundation and sand erosion, characteristic dune zones may be mixed with each other and abiotic variables may be changed spa-tially. As a result of concurrent inundation, burial-tolerant stabilizer species can develop by the help of the growth of laterally rhizomes. Plant communities significantly affect the spatial distribution of soil physical and chemical traits and the selection of plant species is important in the reclamation of coastal areas (He et al. 2014; Stallins and Corenblit 2017). The better understanding the spatial heterogeneity of soil
Table 6 Intr a-se t cor relation coefficients of c hemical and ph ysical tr aits in w es ter n par t of s tudy ar ea Significant cor relations w er e sho wn in bold OM K NO 3 –N H CO 3 EC PH SA R Ver y coarse sand Coarse sand Medium sand Fine sand Ver y fine sand Axis 1 0.565 − 0.326 − 0.054 − 0.128 − 0.137 − 0.798 − 0.243 − 0.558 − 0.668 0.117 0.034 0.221 Axis 2 0.014 0.561 − 0.012 0.727 − 0.060 0.324 − 0.623 − 0.024 − 0.655 0.323 − 0.139 0.603
Fig. 9 The Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) show-ing the position of species and chemical and physical traits for eastern coastal dunes. (Canonical Eigen value = 0.38, % variance explained = 8.13, Cumulative % variance = 8.13 for axis 1. Canonical
Eigen value = 0.18, % variance explained = 3.63, Cumulative % vari-ance = 11.77 for axis 2). Species abbreviations are given Table 7 in Appendix 1
Fig. 10 The Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) show-ing the position of species and chemical and physical traits for western coastal dunes. (Canonical Eigen value = 0.59, % variance explained = 10.58, Cumulative % variance = 10.58 for axis 1.
Canoni-cal Eigen value = 0.23, % variance explained = 4.08, Cumulative % variance = 14.67 for axis 2). Species abbreviations are given Table 7
physical and chemical traits in coastal dune ecosystems will be helpful for plantation studies for the prevention of sand erosion and also help in mitigating the effects of global cli-matic changes on coastal dune structure (Frosini et al. 2015; Li et al. 2015). For sustainable management in the studied coastal dune area, the species which are very resistant to the changes in dune morphology such as Achillea maritima (L.) Ehrend. & Y.P. Guo subsp. maritima may be used for the development of texture.
Acknowledgements We are grateful to University of Ondokuz Mayıs Research Fund (PYO.FEN.1904.10.010) for supporting this study financially.
Appendix 1
See Table 7.
Table 7 Species abbreviations Ach mar Achillea maritima (L.) Ehrend. et Y. Agr sto Agrostis stolonifera L.
Am mare Ammophila arenaria (L.) Link subsp. arundinacea H. Lindb. Fil. Ana arv Anagallis arvensis L. var. arvensis
Anc hyb Anchusa hybrida Ten.
Apo ven Apocynum venetum L. Woodson subsp. sermatiense
Bla per Blackstonia perfoliata (L.) Hudson subsp. serotina (W. Koch ex Reichb.) Vollmann
Bro rac Bromus racemosus L.
Cak mar Cakile maritima Scop. Cal sal Calystegia soldanella (L.) R.R. Cen ibe Centaurea iberica Trev. ex Sprengel Cen inc Cenchrus incertus M. A. Curtis Cen pul Centaurium pulchellum (Swartz) Druce Cio ere Cionura erecta (L.) Griseb.
Cot tin Cota tinctoria var. tinctoria L.
Cre foe Crepis foetida L. subsp. rhoeadifolia (Bieb.) Celak. Cyn acu Cynanchum acutum L. subsp. acutum L.
Cyn cre Cynoglossum creticum Miller Cyp cap Cyperus capitatus Vandelli Dau bro Daucus broteri Ten.
Dig isc Digitaria ischaemum (Schreber ex Schweigger) Muhlenb. Ech ori Echinops orientalis Trautv.
Ech pla Echium plantagineum L. Ela rha Elaeagnus rhamnoides (L.) A.
Ely elo Elymus elongatus (Host) Runemark subsp. elongates
Ely far Elymus farctus (Viv.) Runemark ex Melderis subsp. bessarabicus (Savul. Et Rayss) Melderis var. bessarabicus
Ery mar Eryngium maritimum L.
Eup pal Euphorbia palustris L. Eup par Euphorbia paralias L. Eup pep Euphorbia peplis L. Gla fla Glaucium flavum Crantz Gun tou Gundelia tournefortii L. Hyp per Hypericum perforatum L. Hyp rad Hypochoeris radicata L. Imp cyc Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch. Jun lit Juncus littoralis C.A. Meyer Jun pym Juncus pygmaeus L.C.M. Richard Jur kil Jurinea kilaea Azn.
Kic com Kickxia commutata (Richb.) Fritschsubsp. commutata
Lag ova Lagurus ovatus L.
Med mar Medicago marina L.
Med pol Medicago polymorpha L. var. polymorpha Med var Medicago x varia Martyn
Pan mar Pancratium maritimum L.
Par inc Parapholis incurva (L.) C.E. Hubbard Pet sax Petrorhagia saxifraga (L.) Link.
Phl exe Phleum exaratum Hochst. ex Griseb. subsp. exaratum Pol mon Polypogon monspeliensis L. (Desf.)
Pol mar Polygonum maritimum L. Sal rut Salsola ruthenica L. Sat hor Satureja hortensis L.
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