[PHOTO] The dunes of Stanhope

The dunes of the Prince Edward Island National Park are both beautiful and vulnerable, as the Parks Canada website makes clear.

Prince Edward Island National Park protects a portion of the Maritime Plain Natural Region, which is characterized by sand dunes, barrier islands and beaches, sandspits, and associated wetlands. The diverse habitats in the Park provide a home for a variety of plants and animals. The woods and shores of the Park are filled with over 300 species of birds and a large variety of plants.

[. . .]

The sandbars, barrier beaches, and dunes that you see throughout the Park today were formed by the accumulation of sand from eroding sandstone. Sand dunes are created by the wind and waves that carry dry sand up onto the beach where it collects behind rocks or clumps of seaweed. The gradual build-up of sand that forms a dune would be blown away if it were not for the sand-loving marram grass, whose roots and rhizomes form a living net, which helps to slow the movement of sand. Once stabilized, a variety of other plants and many different animals can make the dunes their home.

Sand dunes are an important natural habitat and act as a natural protective barrier against the effects of storms and waves. Research on dunes and all its associated features – vegetation, wildlife, and wetlands - helps us to understand and protect them better.

Thus, all my photography was done from the level of the beach.

(I know some of these pictures aren't of dunes. Class them under the category of "edges".)

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Andart's Anders Sandberg links to an essay he co-wrote about human longevity. The lessons of centenarians are important, but they also indicate the problems with extended: the damage of ageing has to be slowed down or even repaired, somehow.


• BlogTO has two photoposts about alternate subways in Toronto, one showing a 1913 proposal for a downtown route, the other examining the Lower Queen Station that could have anchored a Queen Street subway.


• Crooked Timber and Lawyers, Guns and Money both go after Conor Friedersdorf's article that doesn't identify bigoted behaviour as bigoted.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes that the results of a search for exomoons, while not turning any up, has produced interesting data on planetary densities.


• Eastern Approaches, looking to the examples of Arab Spring states, argues that Ukraine will have trouble getting back state assets appropriated by the Yanukovich elite.


• Geocurrents wonders whether mealtimes in Spain are product of geography and climate.


• Language Hat notes the disappearance of Yiddish as a major American language.


• Marginal Revolution links to a paper asking whether too many cultural similarities can lead to interstate war and notes Ukraine's weak post-Soviet economic growth.


• The Planetary Society Blog features a Marc Rayman post talking about the Dawn probe's maneuvering towards dwarf planet Ceres.


• Steve Munro breaks down Toronto's transit history into three different phases.


• Torontoist goes into more detail about the school trustees who would like a crackdown on nudity at Pride.


• Towleroad examines Liz Dahl, the second Russia Today anchor to quit on a live broadcast over Crimea.