Camber Sands
Sand Dunes
The sand dunes at Camber Sands are spectacular natural features and they're pretty rare on British landscapes.
Sand dunes are formed by sand blown off exposed sandy beaches. The sand accumulates into ridges, which originally lay parallel to the direction of the prevailing winds. Over time, these ridges break up and leave more irregular patterns of sand dunes and hollows, known as dune-slacks.
Sand dune systems are important, rare habitats and have an important effect on local biodiversity.
The dunes at Camber are coastal dunes, which form where constructive waves encourage the accumulation of sand, and where prevailing onshore winds blow this sand inland. There need to be obstacles like vegetation or pebbles to trap the moving sand grains. As the sand grains get trapped they start to accumulate, this is the start of dune formation. The wind then starts to affect the mound of sand by eroding sand particles from the windward side and depositing them on the leeward side. Gradually this action causes the dune to 'migrate' inland, as it does so it accumulates more and more sand.
Rotting seaweed on the high tide line, where sand first begins to accumulate, provides a growing medium for plants such as sea couch grass and lyme grass and their root systems trap the shifting sands. If they aren't destroyed by storms, the early form of the sand dune builds up and is eventually colonised by marram grass.
Marram has extensive and deep running roots, which help supply the plant with necessary nutrients and also stabilise the sand. When the marram becomes buried by sand it sends up new buds. As a result, the size of the dunes increases rapidly. Eventually a turf forms on the dune and other plants take over from the marram grass. Where dunes are well established, high-tide debris builds up in a new line to their seaward side and this in turn forms new dunes.
Dunes are fragile environments and they can be easily disrupted. If the network of grass is broken, wind can blow inside the hole and whip the sand out until the whole dune fails.
The world's biggest sand dunes include the Badain Jaran Dunes in the Gobi desert, Mount Tempest in Australia and Star Dune in Colorado, USA. The dunes at Camber Sands don't compare in size to these dunes, which stand thousands of metres high, but are nonetheless a beautiful example of nature at work.
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