Population biology of Ammophila breviligulata and Calamovilfa longifolia on Lake Huron sand dunes. III. Dynamic changes in plant community structure

Abstract

Changes in vegetation and physiography of Lake Huron shoreline were studied by recording total counts and by comparing photographs taken in 1977, 1985, and 1987. In 1977, a large number of annual and biennial plant species such as Cakile edentula, Corispermum hyssopifolium, Salsola kali, Euphorbia polygonifolia, Artemisia campestris, and Oenothera biennis were found growing in association with two perennial grasses, Calamovilfa longifolia and Andropogon scoparius. Ammophila breviligulata was absent at that time, but became abundant through establishment of ramets from rhizome fragments after the storms of 1979 and 1981. Two damaging storms, one in October 1986 and the second in April 1987, wiped out almost all of Ammophila breviligulata, leaving a few remnant shoots among clumps of Calamovilfa longifolia. Observations suggest that the low density (two shoots∙m−2) of Ammophila breviligulata tillers among Calamovilfa longifolia populations on the first dune ridge has resulted from landward extensions of plagiotropic rhizomes from the once abundant Ammophila breviligulata populations on the lakeward end of the beach.