On the beach, there is no vegetation with little organisms living there. About 50 ft. over, marram grass becomes present. This picture tells us how the foredune is created.
When the sand is blown inland from the beach, the tall blades of the Marram grass catch the sand and it falls down and covers the plant. Marram grass continuously grows as it is coverered, spreading its root-like rhizomes out to connect with other Marram grass plants to create a large network of webbing which keeps the sand from moving very far.
Once, the place where the foredune was, was all glaciers. The sand was carried south into Michigan by the glaciers. This is an example of succession. Another example is that somewhere, Marram grass was planted or also blown in the wind. Because of this, the sand was caught like in the diagram and began the start of the dune. The grass was not present before and it helped the whole ecosystem prosper.
