The Mainz Sand Dunes () are a small geological and botanical supra-region and important nature preserve in
Mainz
Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
, Germany. Within this protected area rare plants and animals can be found. Some of the species represented here, such as the Purple Golden-drop, (''
Onosma arenaria'') grow only here and in small numbers.
The sand dunes developed after the last
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...
(
Würm glaciation
The Würm glaciation or Würm stage ( or ''Würm-Glazial'', colloquially often also ''Würmeiszeit'' or ''Würmzeit''; cf. ice age), usually referred to in the literature as the Würm (often spelled "Wurm"), was the last glacial period in the ...
) and the first resettlement of
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...
plants occurred approximately 12,000 years ago. The dry sandy soils are poor of nutrients but relict flora from the glaciation grasslands grow favorably. These plants are found otherwise only in southeast-European, inner-Asiatic (
Pontic Steppe
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from n ...
) areas and in the Mediterranean respectively. The effective surface of the protected landscape is rather small at 1.27 square kilometers.
The Sand Dunes can be found between the suburbs
Gonsenheim and
Mombach and stretches up to the
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
s beginning in Mombach. Bordering the dunes is the
Lennebergwald, with an area of 7 km² and therefore the biggest contiguous forest in
Rheinhessen
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (, ) is a region and a former government district () in the States of Germany, German state of Rhineland ...
. The Lenneberg forest is also protected and shows to some extent the same flora and fauna.
The Mainz Sand Dunes Nature Reserve
by Ralf Eichberger
The development of the sand dunes
In the late Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
, just before the end of the last ice age and during the short summers, sand-drifts were blown from the Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
Valley into the area of the present dunes, forming this unique geology. The soil consists almost solely of high lime component with fine white sand, which barely retains water and nutritive but is easily warmed by sunlight.
References
{{coord, 50, 00, 55, N, 8, 12, 25, E, region:DE-RP_type:landmark, display=title
Dunes of Germany
Geography of Mainz
Nature reserves in Rhineland-Palatinate
Landforms of Rhineland-Palatinate