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Dawlish Warren
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The Habitats The following short resume can in no way
reflect the complexities of the habitats here (a detailed description will
hopefully appear here later or can be obtained from the Visitor Centre) but an
indication of their wildlife value can be described numerically; the site
supports over 2000 spp of invertebrates, 620 plants and 250 fungi of which
many are National Rarities and some species were even new to science when
discovered here. Its gradations of
rare habitats are also of regional significance; it is the second most
important reserve in Devon, after Braunton Burrows. Langstone Rock at the southwestern corner
of the site is a 15m high New Red Sandstone megalith, a distinctive local
geographical landmark, very distinct from the spit which extends NE from
it. The base of the spit has largely
suffered from tourism development and a ‘hard-engineered’ sea defence scheme
but the remainder of the spit is semi-natural. The depressed central zone of the spit becomes flooded in
winter, it supports part willow-birch-alder Salix-Betula-Alnus scrubland with ponds, small areas of dune
slack and marshy grassland. The majority of the Outer Warren is a
mosaic of semi-fixed dune grassland and bramble Rubus agg. scrub with a seaward mobile dune ridge, these two
habitats are closely linked on Warren Point.
The sandy, gravely beach and intertidal banks, which stretch over a
mile out to sea, are in a constant state of flux with rapid rates of creation
and erosion. The Inner Warren has
historically been stable and supports fixed-dune grassland, strips of gorse Ulex europaeus and dune
heathland within the golf course roughs; here there is also a small copse of
Turkey oak Quercus cerris. Planted in 1935, the estuarine side of the
spit supports an area of Cordgrass Spartina
saltmarsh and thereafter are large expanses of estuarine mudflats. The Bight is a shallow bay enclosed by
Warren Neck supporting a glasswort Salicornia
spp. Community, with increasing areas of saltmarsh. |
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