Shingle habitats in the British Isles

Abstract

RANDALL, R. E., 1989. Shingle habitats in the British Isles. Shingle is the term applied to sediments larger in diameter than sand but smaller than boulders. Around Great Britain there are almost 900 km of pure shingle and vast stretches of rock/shingle, sand/shingle and mud/shingle mixtures. Outside Japan, New Zealand and north-west Europe, shingle is an uncommon coastal sediment. Shingle may form fringing beaches, spits, bars, cuspate forelands and offshore barrier islands, depending upon available supply of sedimentary material and coastal topography. Species composition on shingle features is partly determined by climate which affects the geographic range of certain species. The other major factors are beach stability and beach composition. Climate results in distinctive patterns in the flora but within the each climate zone beach movement will affect the quantity of annuals, short-lived or long-lived perennials present. The presence or absence and nature of the fine material within the shingle will cause different combinations of species ecologically related to those of sand dunes, salt-marsh or cliff. Coastal shingle vegetation has a distinctive flora which contains several rare or declining species as well as some common coastal and ruderal plants. At the largest shingle sites a successional sequence can be recorded which initiates with halophytic forbs near the foreshore and moves through neutral to acid grassland species with shrubs and prostrate scrub in the more inland areas.