AO1 (3 marks) /AO2 (3 marks)

Marking instructions
Markers must apply the descriptors in line with the general marking guidance and the qualities outlined in the levels-based mark scheme below.
Indicative content guidance
The indicative content below is not prescriptive and candidates are not required to include all of it. Other relevant material not suggested below must also be credited.
Please remember that the descriptors provide guidance as to the appropriate level.
Bullet points covering the indicative content do not translate directly into marks.

Relevant points may include:
AO1

Coastal plain landscapes (sandy and estuarine coasts) are found near areas of low relief and result from supply of sediment from different terrestrial and offshore sources, often in a low-energy environment.
Transportation and deposition processes produce distinctive coastal landforms (beaches, recurved and double spits, offshore bars, barrier beaches and bars, tombolo’s and cuspate forelands), which can be stabilised by plant succession.
Vegetation is important in stabilising sandy coastlines through dune successional development on sandy coastlines and salt marsh successional development in estuarine areas.
Human actions will affect the development of these landscapes both through negative and positive actions.

AO2

Figure 3b shows a coastal plain landscape with a sandy beach with vegetation succession inland.
The sandy beach could have been developed firstly through the process of longshore drift of eroded material with subsequent deposition possibly through the process of settlement in a low energy environment through the action of constructive waves.
A possible view is that this is an area of a large tidal range where sand dries out and then through aeolian processes such as saltation sand is driven on to land by on shore winds.
Figure 3b shows progressively dense vegetation moving inland suggesting a spatial succession.
The development of a psammosere succession can be inferred.
Pioneer species such as sea twitch/sea couch and colonising species such as marram grass/heather/gorse stabilise the sand through the binding action of the roots anchoring the sand into a fixed position.
The marram grass/heather then further develops the landscape by trapping wind-blown sand and so increasing the height of the coastal plain above the mean high tide height.
The blowout is likely to have been created through human action of trampling which creates the conditions where wind flow is increased by up to 2 times the proximate beach level.
Human action or inaction may have a role to play in the development of the beach.

Accept any other appropriate response.

Coastal Landforms & Landscapes (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Topic Questions