Nabkha

A nabkha or nebkha is a type of sand dune. Other terms used include coppice dune and dune hummock or hummocky dune, but these more accurately refer to similar, but different, sand dune types. Authors have also used the terms phytogenic hillock,bush-mound, shrub-coppice dune, knob dune, dune tumulus, rebdou, nebbe, and takouit.

In simplest terms, a nabkha is a sand dune that forms around vegetation. It is an aeolian landform, a structure built and shaped by the action of wind.

Nabkhas are common and occur in many regions. Well known nabkha fields occur in the Arabian Desert of Kuwait, the Hotan River Basin in Xinjiang, China, and New Mexico in the United States and adjacent Chihuahua in Mexico.

Many species of sand-dwelling plants form nabkhas. In the Chihuahuan Desert they include soaptree (Yucca elata), creosote (Larrea tridentata), and atriplex (Atriplex spp.). In China nabkhas form quite often around Caragana microphylla, as well as Cleistogenes squarrosa, Leymus chinensis, Caragana stenophylla, Stipa grandis, and S. glareosa, plus tamarisks, reeds, and alhagi. In Jal Az-Zor National Park in Kuwait, they occur around Nitraria retusa, Zygophyllum qatarense, Haloxylon salicornicum, and Panicum turgidum.Halophytes such as Tamarix aucheriana, Halocnemum strobilaceum and Salicornia europaea have nabkhas in saline soils, while Cyperus conglomeratus, Rhanterium epapposum, Astragalus spinosus, Lycium shawii, and Citrulus colocynthis are seen in non-saline zones. On the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt they are recorded on Artemisia monosperma, Moltkiopsis ciliata, Calligonum polygonoides, Stipagrostis scoparia, and Retama raetam. In central Asia and surrounding areas they occur on Calotropis, Ziziphus, Salvadora, and Heliotropium species.

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