Black Sea coastal dune grassland (grey dune)

Stabilized or semi-stabilized dune grasslands (grey dunes) represented by perennial communities, dominated by grasses, herbs, mosses and lichens. The type is distributed along the Black Sea coast, but mostly found in its western and north-western part. This habitat includes dune complexes which differ in size and height (from 2–3 m up to 50 m above sea level). These dunes are better developed on flat shores, where there is a wider contact zone between the Black Sea influence and the adjacent vegetation, mostly forests. The vegetation of the Black Sea dunes is a complex of grasslands, small shrubs and small forests. Perennial species dominate but many annuals occur, principally on the more mobile sands, usually present on high ridges. On northern exposed, moist slopes, many mosses and lichens occur. The most fixed wet sands at the depressions in the dunes are covered by the coenoses mostly dominated by tall grasses, sedges and rushes, forming transitions to humid dune slacks (habitat B1,8b). The vegetation of the Black Sea fixed dunes shows a large diversity in species composition. Along the western coast of the Black Sea it changes gradually from south to north. The main gradient is climatic and also biogeographical. This gradient is associated with a reduction of East-Mediterranean species and an increase of Pontic steppe species. According to this gradient the Western Black Sea grey dunes are divided into two main types: northern and southern grey dunes, with the Balkan Range in Bulgaria as a conditional border between the two sub-types. The northern Black Sea grey dunes have optimal distribution in the region of the Danube Delta in Romania and around the Azov Sea in Ukraine. The southern Black Sea dune grasslands are widely distributed in the Southern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and European Turkey. Especially the southern Black Sea dunes are rich in some Balkan and Balkan-Anatolian endemics, like Lepidotrichum uechtritzianum, while the northern types are less rich in both annuals and endemic species. These dune grasslands are threatened by direct destruction and degradation from the construction activities in resort areas, both in Bulgaria and Romania. There is also invasion of natural and alien shrub and three species as Paliurus spina-christi, Ailanthus altissima, Amorpha fruticosa, Robinia pseudacacia, Eleagnos angustifolia.

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