Herstelbeheer van vergrast stuifzand op het Deelensche Zand (Hoge Veluwe)

Restoration management of degraded drift sand on the Deelensche Zand: The Deelensche Zand (part of the National Park De Hoge Veluwe, in the central part of the Netherlands) consisted of lichen-rich drift sand in the past, but is partly grass-encroached in the present. In 2001 a sieving machine (so-called beach sand cleaner or drift sand cleaner) was applied in order to regain the lichen-rich pioneer communities with Corynephorus canescens (grey hair grass). For that purpose the vegetation and the upper soil layer were scraped off from five plots drift sand, encroached with Deschampsia flexuosa and Agrostis vinealis. The subsequent changes in vegetation and soil were monitored until June 2008. In those seven years, the short grassland with Corynephorus canescens has been restored, however it had a high moss cover. In some plots the main moss cover consisted of Polytrichum piliferum, in others it was Campylopus introflexus. On the mats of the latter species the more common lichen species appeared, the more rare species occurred on the mats of the former species. The application of the sieving machine is especially useful in the early stages of grass encroachment when the moss cover is not too dense and the soil profile less developed.