Sand dunes and salt marsh pools

SAVING HABITATS

Sand dunes

The Coastal sand dunes provide the best habitat in Britain for the natterjack toad. Natterjacks need warm water in which to breed and they find this in the shallow pools, or slacks, that form between the successive ridges of sand dune systems.

The sand lizard also inhabits this warm sandy habitat but the dune populations are now restricted to a handful of small colonies on the Merseyside coast.

This specialised habitat needs careful management, particularly the control of invasive scrub. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation undertakes such management and co-ordinates regular monitoring to maintain a complete record of the acutely vulnerable populations of these two threatened species.

Salt marsh pools

Some salt marsh pools provide ideal breeding sites for natterjack toads, when the water in them becomes fresh enough. After the main spring high tides, rainfall and water draining from the land gradually make the upper salt marsh pools fresher; natterjacks select and lay their spawn in ponds which are no longer too saline for eggs and tadpoles to develop. These pools can be very productive but, because of their ephemeral nature, all the spawn or tadpoles can often be lost.

More on...

ARC's natterjack project in Cumbria. >>>