EU habitats of interest: an insight into Atlantic and Mediterranean beach and foredunes

We compared the Atlantic and Mediterranean beach and foredune habitats of European interest, focusing on floristic, structural and ecological features. We selected two representative sites of Atlantic (The Netherlands) and Mediterranean (Italy) coastal dunes. From a georeferenced vegetation database, samples of: (a) annual vegetation on drift lines (European Union habitat type 1210), (b) embryonic shifting dunes (2110), and (c) shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria (2120), were selected. Floristic representativity and comparability of plot sizes were considered. For each habitat, the frequency and the fidelity of the species, the life form frequency spectra and Ellenberg ecological indicator values were assessed. We found a consistent floristic differentiation between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coastal dune habitats and only a small set of shared species. The Italian and the Dutch annual vegetation of drift lines (1210) register a high structural similarity that strongly declines landwards. Floristic composition, life forms and Ellenberg indicator values show higher similarities among different foredune habitats of the same site than between homologous habitats of the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. The results confirm the current description and distribution of the habitat of European interest annual vegetation of drift lines (1210). On the other hand, the floristic, structural and ecological differences between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean