N15x Iberoatlantic fixed gray dunes
Description
Communities pretty rich in species, including numerous mostly Mediterranean lineages, growing in the innermost belt of sand dunes after a long period with no disturbances by storms, replacing N133. The leaching of the salt and the build up of a continuous layer of organic soil, facilitated by carpets of poikilohydric mosses, enable the incipient, patchy establishment of woody plants, some proper to this sand-dwelling, subhalophilous communities and others arriving from the surrounding zonal vegetation. A new regional level IV category is created, since the apparently customized N155 (“Biscay fixed gray dunes) is, judging by its floristic definition, at odds with most of our communities, especially the western ones; whereas the floristically more adequate N161 (“Mediterraneo-Atlantic fixed grey dunes) is in its definition explicitly excluded from our region. Through excessive human pressure, essentially camping and beachgoing, these communities turn into V32Z.
Floristic Composition
Frequent species
Indicator species
Regional distribution
