Book Description

This book is a hybrid nature photography and natural history book about the Indiana Dunes:1.It combines stunning photographs of nature with text that illustrates and describes the natural history of the Indiana Dunes.2.It focuses on four unique aspects of the Indiana Dunes: Beach, dunes, woods, and wetlands. 3.It is presented as a legacy to the Indiana Dunes and as an inspiration to readers to both explore and learn about the dunes.The book is organized around the four Dunes' environments of beach, dunes, woods, and wetlands. This takes the reader on a journey through the dunes that closely follows their geological formation and evolution and plant succession. We start our journey at the beach in Chapter 1, Beach. Here lake and land meet, the starting point for the formation of dunes, an environmentally harsh and challenging place to survive. Sand transported and deposited on the beach by waves and current is then moved inland by wind, resulting in the formation of sand dunes, which are explored in Chapter 2, Dunes. Here, the formation and types of dunes are experienced. As vegetation takes root and stabilizes the dunes, forests eventually grow. In Chapter 3, Woods the role plant ecology and succession plays in the dunes is shown. Oak savannas and spring wildflowers are seen. Finally, in Chapter 4, Wetlands, the diversity and beauty of the wetlands that form between dunes and in low-lying areas is revealed. Wetlands are perhaps the most biologically diverse area of the dunes, but probably the most overlooked and underappreciated area. Taken together, the four chapters take the reader on a journey that closely follows 6,000 years of natural history.