Plant Community Structure, Fire Disturbance, and Recovery in ...

Contributions to the Study of Biological Diversity Vol. 3
Figure 1.4. Beach profile at Almond Beach camp, near plots 2, 4 and 5, an area with a wide beach ridge that,
at the time of survey in April 2001, had several small structures and gardens. The swale at 70 m was deeper in
some places than shown, and formed a slightly brackish pond persisting through most dry seasons. Beyond
170 m was Avicennia swamp that burned in early 1998. Waves from extreme storms have flooded interior
sections of the beach ridge, but rarely reached the mangrove swamp.
burn in the 1998 soil fires (Figure1.5).
Figure 1.5. Location of beach ridges on the Waini
Peninsula, shown in relation to burned areas and
settlements or camps.
Inland beach ridges occur within the coastal
mangrove swamps; these run approximately
parallel to the present shoreline. Such ridges are
evidence of long-term coastal accretion, as they
represent former shorelines; they are often
termed “cheniers” in the literature (Prost 1989,
1997; Wells & Coleman 1981), and the coast of
the Guianas is one of the few true chenier coasts
of the world. The region of South American
cheniers stretches from the mouth of the
Amazon River north through the Orinoco Delta
(Bacon 1990). The other major chenier coast in
the New World is the Louisiana chenier plain
of the Mississippi River delta (Huh et al. 2001;
13
Wells & Coleman 1981). On the Waini
Peninsula, the largest cheniers rise about one
meter above the surrounding swamp surface and
support non-mangrove vegetation dominated by
trees including Terminalia catappa L. and
Spondias mombin L. Differences in hydrology,
vegetation cover, or surface reflectance of shells
often allow cheniers to be distinguishable in
satellite imagery. The cheniers on the Waini
Peninsula sometimes coincide with transitions
in plant community composition. There are
accounts from older residents of the Almond
Beach area describing the largest chenier, now
over 700 meters from the present shore, as
having been the location of the shoreline within
their memories; these accounts have not been
confirmed, but could be subject to comparison
with older maps and aerial photos. Vann (1969)
also reports observations of shell ridges stranded
up to 300 yards from shore that had been beach
by the ocean 30 years earlier, corroborating the
local accounts.
Like most coastal plant communities, those
of the Waini Peninsula are influenced
considerably by local geomorphic processes
over time (Augustinus 1995; Thom 1967, 1975;
Woodroffe 1992). Although direct building of
land has been attributed to mangrove vegetation
in early literature, that has been largely
discounted (Woodroffe 1992). Still, mangroves
probably play some role in securing land built
up through geomorphic processes, both by
slowing wave erosion and, as suggested by Wells