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CEGL003370 Artemisia campestris - Festuca rubra / Racomitrium canescens Grassland

Type Concept Sentence: No Data Available


Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Field Sagewort - Red Fescue / Silver Moss Grassland

Colloquial Name: No Data Available

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This community is confined to sparsely vegetated coastal sand dunes and spits with well-drained nutrient-poor soils in the Georgia Basin. Occurrences are associated with larger accretional sites, including sand spits (Goose Spit and Cordova Spit), dunes (Island View Beach area and Savary Island), or sand islands (Sandy Island). It is not found on beaches with a narrow band of Leymus mollis ssp. mollis or Cakile edentula vegetation. Large coastal sand features are very rare in coastal British Columbia because of uncommon physiographic requirements. Adequate sand supply (e.g., glacial deposits of coarse and fine sand (Quadra Sand)) and active coastal transport and deposition (e.g., shallow coastal areas) are required to sustain this element in the long term. This association encompasses a range of successional stages of vegetation development on coastal sand dunes, including very sparsely vegetated young or disturbed dunes (e.g., active sand movement from wind), to stable or semi-stable dunes with large amounts of bryophyte cover. These changes occur on a continuum and are appropriately encompassed by a single plant association. Natural disturbance may be important for maintaining this community in the long term. The development of new sand areas as older areas are colonized and stabilized sustains the overall assemblage of plant species and associations in coastal dunes and spits.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: This community replaces the preliminary Artemisia campestris - Grindelia integrifolia Herbaceous Vegetation (or Artemisia campestris - Grindelia integrifolia (Festuca rubra) Herbaceous Vegetation) listed by the BC Conservation Data Centre (2003) based on more detailed vegetation analysis. Artemisia campestris - Grindelia integrifolia Herbaceous Vegetation may be identified as a subassociation encompassed by the community described in this report. Dunes on Savary Island have lower cover of Racomitrium canescens which reflects more active sand movement and less surface stability.

Roemer (2001) noted a provisional association from fourteen plots from Sandy Island Provincial Park as Artemisia campestris var. pacifica - Festuca rubra ssp. arenicola / Racomitrium canescens, but he did not formally describe it at that time. It is not recognized by the BCCDC or other conservation databases.

Kunze (1984) described an Artemisia campestris - Lomatium nudicaule assemblage from several sites in Puget Sound, Washington, including Dungeness Spit. However, no plot data appear to be available from her inventory, and it is unclear if this community was described quantitatively and how it may be related to the element described in this report. Based on the author''s observations of Dungeness Spit, they are likely floristically synonymous with differences related to successional stage.

Christy et al. (1998) described several Festuca rubra-dominated associations from the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, but none are considered similar to this association.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available
note: No Data Available

Physiognomy and Structure: No Data Available

Floristics: This community is sparsely vegetated with low-growing, perennial graminoid or herb vegetation with a variable nonvascular stratum. Floristic composition is variable and related to successional stage, surface stability, and biogeographic differences in species composition. A total of 84 plant species were recorded in 64 plots used to describe this association. Species richness ranges from 5 to 29 species per 1x1-m or 2x2-m plot with a mean of 13.8 species per plot. Dominant herbaceous species include Anthoxanthum odoratum, Artemisia campestris, Cytisus scoparius, Festuca rubra, and Lomatium nudicaule; dominant nonvasculars include Cladonia spp. (= Cladina spp.), Racomitrium canescens, and Tortula ruralis. Two of the sites where plots were measured are relatively stable with higher cover of bryophytes, particularly Racomitrium canescens. The Savary Island dune is less stable with less bryophyte cover; Grindelia integrifolia is also common at the site.

Variability is relatively high and, as noted above, associated with dune stability and successional patterns in combination with biogeographic differences in dune vegetation. Classification focused on identifying diagnostic species that encompass the range of geographic (site-to-site) variability in this community. For example, Artemisia campestris is uncommon in dunes at Goose Spit, while it is abundant on Sandy Island. The contrary is also true; Polygonum paronychia is common at Goose Spit but entirely absent from Sandy Island. These differences are considered stochastic effects of dispersal and colonization and do not reflect major environmental differences at the sites.

Dynamics:  This community is sustained in the long-term (>20 years) by the creation of new open sand habitats or physical disturbance of existing dunes. Physical disturbance may include wind movement of sand (primary disturbance agent for sustaining dunes), tidal action along dune margins, or anthropogenic disturbance such as recreational vehicle use. Activities or processes that increase or decrease sand movement or surface stability may have substantial effects on this community. Exotic plant species that increase surface stability through dense growth may be a large problem in dune plant communities.

Long-term disturbance / dynamic process may include storm cycles influencing the rate of bluff erosion and coastal sediment transport that feed sand to accretional sites or seismic activities (e.g., coastal subsidence or tsunamis) that may create new dunes in coastal British Columbia. These processes may occur at the scale of decades, centuries, or millennia.

Environmental Description:  Sand substrates are characteristically acidic (pH 5 to 6.5), very nutrient-poor (<0.01% total soil nitrogen), and poor in organic material (<0.5% total soil carbon). Water-holding capacity is very low. Weathered dune soils may be hydrophobic. Root development may be extremely deep (e.g., Abronia latifolia roots extend greater than 3 m) for dune plants. Dune soils are extremely sensitive to nutrient enrichment from atmospheric deposition (a problem in western European dunes) or nitrogen-fixing plants (e.g., Scotch broom in the Georgia Basin). Some sites may be tidally flooded under very rare conditions (large winter tides with storm surge). Tidal activity is not considered an important influence on ongoing vegetation development, however, the role of tsunami activity may influence the development of some dunes (less likely in the Georgia Basin than the west coast of Vancouver Island).

Geographic Range: This association is found in the Georgia Basin-Puget Basin Ecoregion and Eastern Vancouver Island Ecoregion of the Georgia Depression Ecoprovince of British Columbia and Washington.

Nations: CA,US

States/Provinces:  BC, WA




Confidence Level: Moderate

Confidence Level Comments: No Data Available

Grank: G1

Greasons: No Data Available


Concept Lineage: No Data Available

Predecessors: No Data Available

Obsolete Names: No Data Available

Obsolete Parents: No Data Available

Synonomy: = Artemisia campestris - Lomatium nudicaule Community Type (Kunze 1984)
= Artemisia campestris var. pacifica - Festuca rubra ssp. arenicola / Racomitrium canescens (Roemer 2001)

Concept Author(s): Western Ecology Group

Author of Description: N. Page

Acknowledgements: No Data Available

Version Date: 11-04-08

  • Christy, J. A., J. S. Kagan, and A. M. Wiedemann. 1998. Plant associations of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area - Siuslaw National Forest, Oregon. Technical Paper R6-NR-ECOL-TP-09-98. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, Portland, OR. 196 pp.
  • Kunze, L. M. 1984. Puget Trough coastal wetland sanctuaries: A summary report of recommended sites. Report to Washington Department of Ecology, Contract No. C-83061. Washington Natural Heritage Program, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Olympia.
  • Roemer, H. 2001. Vegetation data from Sandy Island Provincial Park, BC. Unpublished vegetation data. Excel spreadsheet.
  • WNHP [Washington Natural Heritage Program]. 2018. Unpublished data files. Washington Natural Heritage Program, Department of Natural Resources, Olympia, WA.
  • Western Ecology Working Group of NatureServe. No date. International Ecological Classification Standard: International Vegetation Classification. Terrestrial Vegetation. NatureServe, Boulder, CO.