/ 



Unvegetoted 



Ammo phila brevillgulrjto 

 Solidogo semper virens 

 Artemisia, st ollerigno 

 Lalhyrus japonicus 

 Sportino olternifloro 

 Sportino patens 

 Artemisia coudota 

 Chrysopsls (alcota 

 Myrica pensylvanica 

 Other 



100 pet cover 



'SO 



Figure 126. Vegetative-physiographic transect of belt K. 



Four belts were chosen where vegetation and physiographic features had 

 developed within the past 10 years. belts X and Y were fenced and planted 

 with Ammophila breviligulata by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1968 in 

 a research project studying rates of dune development under a variety of 

 conditions (Knutson, 1980; Fig. 118). Belt J was completely overwashad in 

 1978 (Fig. 120), and belt L, located at the southern end of North Beach, has 

 developed since 1970 (Fig. 124). 



Belts X and Y are located on Nauset Spit-Orleans near Nauset Heights. In 

 1978 the dune line constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was 120 

 meters wide and 4.4 meters high at belt X and 100 meters wide and 3.5 meters 

 high at belt Y (Figs. 127 and 128). Elymus arenarius (sea-lynse grass) and 

 Car-ex kobomugi were planted at belt X and have survived in limited areas among 

 poorly developed stands of Ammophila breviligulata. Occasional drift-line 

 species were the only other plants present in these belts. Salt marsh had not 

 developed along the bay shore because the barrier was narrowed at this 

 location by swift bay channel currents. 



Belt J is located east of Chatham light in the very narrow section of New 

 North Beach, which has in 26 years migrated landward a distance exceeding its 

 own width without inlet formation (Figs. 90 and 120). This belt, which was 

 extremely wide (620 meters) when it first formed at the spit terminus, nar- 

 rowed from both the ocean and bay sides (Table 54) . Ocean shoreline erosion 

 averaged 6.8 meters per year between 1952 and 1978. 



Parts of belt J were planted by the Massachusetts Beach Buggy Association 

 in 1976. The entire belt was overwashed in 1978 with some sediment added to 

 the bay shrre. Along 80 meters of the belt transect, Ammophila brev-iligulata 

 was buried by washover deposits and recovered. Dane vegetation biomass at 

 belt J was among the highest along the Nauset Spit system (Table 55;. Only 

 one other species, Salsola kali, was present in the entire belt (Fig. 129). 



205 



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