Foredune psammophilous communities and coastal erosion in a stretch of the Ligurian sea (Tuscany, Italy) Andrea Bertacchi 1 • Marco Alberto Luca Zuffi 2 • Tiziana Lombardi 1 Received: 18 April 2016 / Accepted: 6 June 2016 Ó Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2016 Abstract Italy sandy coasts are characterised by a great diversity of habitats and, at the same time, many of these coastal stretches are in erosive condition. Therefore, it is important to understand, in areas where marine erosion is particularly strong, which are the most vulnerable and most threatened habitats. The paper sets out data from the survey of foredune habitats (annual vegetation of drift lines, embryonic dunes, mediterranean white dunes, sensu Directive 92/43/EEC) in the San Rossore Estate sandy coast (Northern Tuscany, Italy) strongly subjected to ero- sion. The surveys, in addition to updating the information collected, aim to point out the arrangement of these habi- tats in relation to coastal retrogradation and foredune ero- sion, in order to identify appropriate management tools for mitigating disturbance factors. The surveys, conducted in the field and by photo-interpretation, revealed the presence of foredune plant communities hardly referable, from the phytosociological point of view, to known associations of neighboring coasts. The Cakile maritima plant communi- ties of annual vegetation of drift lines, the Elymus farctus/ Othantus maritimus phytocoenosis of embryonic dune and the Ammophila arenaria/Euphorbia paralias communities of white dunes, are markedly altered in their floristic composition; the coverage and distribution of the different plant communities are in a highly differentiated manner according to erosion gradients. The understanding of dynamics of alteration of psammophilous plant communi- ties in relation to coastal erosion may suggest potential aid in the management actions aimed at containing the trans- formations or and/or useful for the restoration of the same habitats. Keywords Habitats Á Coastal erosion Á Dunes Á Psammophilous vegetation Á Tuscany 1 Introduction Coastal erosion is a widespread problem at the regional and global scale, impacting about 70 % of the Earth’s sandy beach environments (Bird 1985; O’Riordan 1995; Zhang et al. 2004; Pranzini et al. 2015) and it looks increasingly linked to the global warming process (Cazenavel and Le Cozannet 2014; IPCC 2013). In this context, the plant communities of sandy beaches and dune systems are found in habitats particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion (Fea- gin et al. 2005; Schlacher et al. 2008; Doody 2013), making them particularly worthy of attention and protec- tion in order to avoid the habitats destruction, biodiversity alterations and loss of key ecosystem functions (Van der Meulen and Udo de Haes 1996; Van der Maarel 2003; Provoost et al. 2004; Lucrezi et al. 2014). Italy has a coastline of about 7500 km, of which approximately 47 % is represented by hard and soft rock coasts and 53 % by sandy coasts and the phenomenon of coastal erosion affects, to different degrees, around 42 % of sandy coasts (Valpreda and Simeoni 2003; GNRAC 2006; EUROSION 2007). These environments, where non- & Andrea Bertacchi andrea.bertacchi@unipi.it Marco Alberto Luca Zuffi marco.zuffi@unipi.it Tiziana Lombardi tiziana.lombardi@unipi.it 1 Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (DAFE), University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy 2 Museum Natural History, University of Pisa, Via Roma 79, 56011 Calci, Pisa, Italy 123 Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei DOI 10.1007/s12210-016-0543-5