Modern coastal dune management is viewed largely through the prism of dune ecology. Achieving maximum biodiversity and preserving priority species are the primary objectives and management is based on interventions (grazing, mowing, burning, reseeding, and artificial destabilisation) to achieve that purpose. Under non-managed conditions, dune vegetation tends to evolve temporally following well-established succession patterns that lead to a low diversity scrub or woodland. Achieving high diversity involves resisting succession so as to preserve the more biodiverse, earlier stages. The net effect of management is to create dunes with a network of vegetation types that conform to human wish lists. Rather than natural environments, such interventions reduce dunes to the status of parklands. The natural status of NW European dunes under the conditions of relatively stable sea level and generally limited sand supply over the past few thousand years, and certainly since the Little Ice Age (1650–1800), is to be at a relatively well-vegetated and advanced stage of succession. Modern dune management effectively amounts to a form of “dune gardening” to maintain a status that is not natural (i.e., attuned to the ambient environment) under contemporary conditions or those of the past two centuries. Current practice is based on a human value-judgement that views natural succession as the enemy. This view and the resulting actions to resist natural change are at variance with the more pervasive environmental management goal of maintaining natural systems by resisting human intervention. Such an approach reduces dune resilience to global climate change. We advocate an approach that views dunes as combined geomorphological and ecological systems capable of change in response to changing environmental drivers.

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沙丘园艺？当代海岸沙丘管理范式的批判性观点

现代沿海沙丘管理主要通过沙丘生态学的棱镜来看待。实现最大的生物多样性和保护优先物种是主要目标，管理基于干预措施（放牧、割草、燃烧、重新播种和人工破坏稳定）来实现这一目标。在非管理条件下，沙丘植被倾向于按照成熟的演替模式随时间演变，导致低多样性灌木或林地。实现高度多样性涉及抵制演替以保护生物多样性更多的早期阶段。管理的最终效果是创建具有符合人类愿望清单的植被类型网络的沙丘。这种干预措施不是自然环境，而是将沙丘减少到公园绿地的状态。在过去的几千年中，当然自小冰河时代（1650-1800）以来，在相对稳定的海平面和普遍有限的沙子供应的条件下，欧洲西北部沙丘的自然状态将处于相对良好的植被和继承的高级阶段。现代沙丘管理实际上相当于一种“沙丘园艺”形式，以在当代或过去两个世纪的条件下保持非自然状态（即适应周围环境）。当前的做法是基于将自然继承视为敌人的人类价值判断。这种观点和由此产生的抵制自然变化的行动与通过抵制人为干预来维持自然系统的更普遍的环境管理目标不一致。这种方法降低了沙丘对全球气候变化的适应能力。我们提倡一种方法，将沙丘视为组合地貌和生态系统，能够响应不断变化的环境驱动因素而发生变化。