Primary succession on dunes at Sturgeon Bay, Michigan: plants and arthropods.

Abstract

I report here the results of a class study on the species richness and diversity of plants and arthropods on sand dunes of different ages at Sturgeon Bay. Total plant species richness showed a significant increase with increasing dune age, as predicted, and plant richness in quadrats, as well as plant diversity showed trends in that direction. For plants, none of these measures tended to decrease on older dunes. Arthropod richness did not correlate to dune age. ... These results suggest that plant richness and diversity may increase over the first 500 years of primary succession on sand dunes, while arthropod abundance may increase then decrease, and arthropod diversity may decrease within the same time period.