Special section: coastal sandplains.

摘要

The papers in this special section address science and conservation management of one landscape: the coastal sandplain region of the Northeastern USA. This region comprises southeastern Massachusetts (including Cape Cod and the Massachusetts islands), Block Island and Long Island. The term 'sandplain region' here refers to these outwash plains and associated portions of moraines with similar soils, ecological processes and biota. The sandplain region supports a number of disturbance-dependent vegetation communities that are either restricted to this landscape, or reach their greatest extent there. These include pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia) barrens, oak woodlands, maritime shrublands, heathlands and sandplain grasslands. Today, sandplain disturbance-dependent communities and species are at risk..