The coastal dune and inland heaths of Denmark

The Danish heaths cover about 84.000 ha or close to 2 % of the area of Denmark. They are an important part of the NATURA 2000 network. Heathlands > 2.500 m2 are protected by law. Further, many of the larger heathlands are state owned, designated as conservation areas as NATURA 2000 nature.

There is a gradual transition from the coastal dune heath to the inland dry Calluna-Empetrum heath (habitat code 4030), which is the main type of inland heaths. Inland heathlands include about 25,000 ha of dry Calluna vulgaris heath (habitat code 4030), often to be found in a mosaic with Northern Atlantic wet heaths with Erica tetralix (habitat code 4010). Part of the inland heaths consist of inland dune heath including dry sand heaths with Calluna and Genista (habitat code 2310), with Calluna and Empetrum nigrum (habitat code 2320) and Inland dunes with open Corynephorus and Agrostis grasslands (habitat code 2330).

The coastal heaths cover about 25,000 ha – about half of the total dune area along the North Sea. They consist mainly of two types: fixed grey dunes (habitat code 2130*) and decalcified fixed dunes with Empetrum nigrum (habitat code 2140*). The dune heaths develop on coastal dune sand when the acid and nutrient-poor grey dunes are invaded by dwarf shrubs, especially Empetrum nigrum.
In 1800, large part of Denmark was still covered by heath. In 1850 the heaths covered about ⅓ of the total area of Jutland or ¼ of Denmark (Fig. 1).