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Introduction What is the physical environment of a sand dune system? Soil pH, soil moisture, soil depth, wind exposure and precipitation levels are all physical factors likely to influence the nature of the vegetation and nature of succession, e.g. an area with a low soil pH would be expected to harbour plants that were able to tolerate such conditions, plants like azaleas and pin oaks. All of the above factors, bar average rainfall are relevant to this investigation and will be measured in this short term field based study. Plant succession can described by the model fig 1.   Fig 1, Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History This shows that the distance from the shore is positively correlated with the height and percentage cover of the vegetation. It also shows that within a dune system species diversity varies massively. As this is a model it should be able to be applied to dune systems in practice. The purpose of this study is to prove that at location of study these success ional trends are correct. The physical characteristics have a massive bearing on the vegetation and its succession, for example; soil depth. The depth of a soil for plant growth is the vertical distance into the s