Ecosystem
There is a lot of life present on beaches. The natural processes happening here are not only very important for the ecosystem but also for our safety.
Food web
The sea is quite rough and takes a lot of material with it in its waves towards the beaches. This way a lot of organic material like shellfish, seaweed, and jellyfish washes ashore. This material is also called wrack. Wrack is very important for life on the beaches.
There are very tiny and cute little crustaceans that live in the sand of the beach. They dig little tunnels into the sand to escape predators and keep the soil healthy by doing this. Sandhoppers have a preference to stay under wrack, as it gives them safety but also provides nutrition.
Another species that is very dependent on this wrack are beach flies. These flies lay their eggs in the wrack so the larvae can feast on the organic material. Both the sandhoppers and fly larvae form an important source of food for birds that live on, and more importantly breed on the beach. The birds eat the little creatures to provide themselves and their young with energy.
Wrack and the little organisms that live in it form the base of the food web of beach ecosystems, but they are also important for plants that grow on the beach.
Sandhopper
Source: observation.org
Sea Rocket
Source: Julia van Beinum
Dune Plants
When the sandhoppers dig their tunnels in the sand they also take the nutrients that are stored in this wrack with them. This is very important because plants need these nutrients to survive on a plane that is as scarce in nutrients as the beach. Even though not a lot of plants are found on beaches, the plants that are there play an important role in the existence of the beach.
The roots of the plants hold the sand together and prevent the sand from being blown away any further. By doing this the plant inhibits erosion of the coastline. The sand that is not locked in by the roots of these plants, is blown against the plants, slowly creating a little hill. This process is also called dune forming. The dunes are another very important habitat of nature and provide protection against the sea for all life on the mainland.
Impact Cleaning
As you can imagine the nature and biodiversity on these beaches is very important to preserve. It gives us protection against the wild ocean, but also the beauty of a typical Dutch coastline on its own is part of our culture and worth saving.
Sadly, the ecosystems in this environment are often damaged to the point that some beaches have turned into ecological deserts. Life is barely present and there is nothing more than sand and water to see. One of the leading factors contributing to this is the waste created on and the cleaning of these beaches. Often, cleaning the beaches also means taking out the wrack and destroying it with the rest of the waste.
As mentioned before, the wrack plays a significant role in this ecosystem, as it is at the bottom of the food chain. Taking it out has major effects on both the flora and fauna of the beach, given that they feed on this wrack.
Map of all the natura2000 areas in the Netherlands
Source: European Environment Agency (2021)
Protected areas
More and more beaches are being added to the Natura 2000 areas. In the past, no beaches were on this list, only the dunes behind it. However, in the past few years, some beaches have been added and there are plans to add more in the future at the coasts of the provinces of Zuid and Noord Holland.
The importance of establishing this status is that it means that the government and higher authorities recognise that these areas should be protected. When an area is deemed Natura 2000, two laws come into place: the birds directive and the habitat directive. The bird directive ensures that the birds are not to be disturbed and are protected. The habitat directive takes it a bit broader and ensures the protection of the entire habitat of a species. After the impact the cleaning has had on our beaches over the last couple of decades, it is a good thing that laws like this come into place.