20.2 How can a Coastal Dune be Restored?
The society for ecological restoration (SER) defines restoration as ‘‘the process of
assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or
destroyed. It is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates ecosystem
recovery with respect to its health (functional processes), integrity (species composition and community structure), and sustainability (resistance to disturbance and
resilience)’’
(http//www.ser.org/content/guidelines_ecological_restoration.asp).
Certainly, this is a broad concept that applies to many situations and ecosystems,
but it is not easy to use when it comes to coastal dune restoration, because recovery
or restoration of coastal dune ecosystems may include a wide array of situations.
What can be considered to be the ‘‘recovery’’ of a coastal dune ecosystem? Does it
mean recovering former landform types or geomorphological units? Does it mean
recovering mobile stages or to stabilizing mobile dunes and recovering dune vegetation? Does it refer to restoring the environmental heterogeneity? Or recovering the
many successional stages that can be found in a single system, adjacent to one another?
Does it refer to the dynamic geomorphology, the vegetation, or both? Certainly, it
seems that obtaining a clear definition of coastal dune restoration is not a simple task.
Because coastal dunes consist of very dynamic landforms and dynamic communities, heterogeneous and diverse (Martínez et al., Chap. 1, this volume), their
restoration is anything but a simple and straightforward activity. There is no single
way to restore a coastal dune. The commonly used definition of ecological restoration
does not seem to apply to these environments, because there are many scenarios of
recovery that can be looked for in a coastal dune restoration project. That is, the
health, integrity, and sustainability of coastal dunes can refer to many situations.
The compendium of restoration projects gathered in this book is an example of
the complexity and variety of coastal dune restoration activities that are taking
place in a variety of countries from different continents. These activities include
many contrasting actions, such as the creation of artificial dunes, the destruction of
artificial dunes and berms, and the creation of more natural ones, the recovery after
mine extraction activities, the reactivation of stabilized dunes, or the stabilization
of active dunes, and the elimination of invasive species. All of them are attempts to
recover functional processes and ecosystem integrity.
A summary of the different restoration activities that have taken place at coastal
dunes in various countries and that are described in this book follows (Table 20.1).
From this set of examples it is obvious that the restoration of coastal dunes has
many goals, facets, and mechanisms.
20.2.1 Restoring Foredunes
Foredunes are exposed to many different disturbing events, such as the invasion of
exotic species, artificial stabilization, nitrogen deposition, urbanization, storm
surges, storms and hurricanes, human trampling, and 2WD and 4WD vehicle
324
M. L. Martínez et al.
The society for ecological restoration (SER) defines restoration as ‘‘the process of
assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or
destroyed. It is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates ecosystem
recovery with respect to its health (functional processes), integrity (species composition and community structure), and sustainability (resistance to disturbance and
resilience)’’
(http//www.ser.org/content/guidelines_ecological_restoration.asp).
Certainly, this is a broad concept that applies to many situations and ecosystems,
but it is not easy to use when it comes to coastal dune restoration, because recovery
or restoration of coastal dune ecosystems may include a wide array of situations.
What can be considered to be the ‘‘recovery’’ of a coastal dune ecosystem? Does it
mean recovering former landform types or geomorphological units? Does it mean
recovering mobile stages or to stabilizing mobile dunes and recovering dune vegetation? Does it refer to restoring the environmental heterogeneity? Or recovering the
many successional stages that can be found in a single system, adjacent to one another?
Does it refer to the dynamic geomorphology, the vegetation, or both? Certainly, it
seems that obtaining a clear definition of coastal dune restoration is not a simple task.
Because coastal dunes consist of very dynamic landforms and dynamic communities, heterogeneous and diverse (Martínez et al., Chap. 1, this volume), their
restoration is anything but a simple and straightforward activity. There is no single
way to restore a coastal dune. The commonly used definition of ecological restoration
does not seem to apply to these environments, because there are many scenarios of
recovery that can be looked for in a coastal dune restoration project. That is, the
health, integrity, and sustainability of coastal dunes can refer to many situations.
The compendium of restoration projects gathered in this book is an example of
the complexity and variety of coastal dune restoration activities that are taking
place in a variety of countries from different continents. These activities include
many contrasting actions, such as the creation of artificial dunes, the destruction of
artificial dunes and berms, and the creation of more natural ones, the recovery after
mine extraction activities, the reactivation of stabilized dunes, or the stabilization
of active dunes, and the elimination of invasive species. All of them are attempts to
recover functional processes and ecosystem integrity.
A summary of the different restoration activities that have taken place at coastal
dunes in various countries and that are described in this book follows (Table 20.1).
From this set of examples it is obvious that the restoration of coastal dunes has
many goals, facets, and mechanisms.
20.2.1 Restoring Foredunes
Foredunes are exposed to many different disturbing events, such as the invasion of
exotic species, artificial stabilization, nitrogen deposition, urbanization, storm
surges, storms and hurricanes, human trampling, and 2WD and 4WD vehicle
324
M. L. Martínez et al.