Tree planting stabilized dunes—and helped erase habitat for a rare dune shrub
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
A 70-year orthophoto series showed afforested area expanding as open dune habitat fell from about 104.6 ha in 1956 to 40.3 ha in 2023, a 61.5% contraction. Field surveys found Corema album occurrence dropped sharply from open dune into afforested habitat. Plants at the plantation edge were larger, but juveniles made up less than 25% of individuals overall and were absent from edge plots; pine regeneration was abundant in the transition zone.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Afforestation can look like stabilization or restoration while removing the open-system conditions a specialist requires. The counter-signal is not that trees are bad; it is that the desired ecological state cannot be inferred from woody cover alone.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is one long-term site and population, so the historical correlation cannot isolate maritime pine from every other change affecting dunes. Larger adult shrubs at the plantation edge do not establish demographic success, and the role of native versus planted pine and local dune-management history matters.
SOURCE
Biodiversity and Conservation — primary study
View original evidence ↗
Seventy years of aerial imagery in northwest Spain show planted maritime pine expansion alongside roughly 61.5% contraction of open dune habitat used by Corema album, with no juveniles found at the plantation edge.
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