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Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Science identified the hybrid in a paper published in Ecosphere.
In addition to their ecological implications, the findings are important in the context of coastal vulnerability to the effects of climate change, including increasing danger from flooding and erosion from storms and rising water.
An OSU collaboration led by integrative biology Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Mostow and professor Sally Hacker employed multiple analytical techniques to show that the beachgrasses that dominate the Northwest's dunes, Ammophila arenaria and A. breviligulata, have hybridized.
A. arenaria is a European species and A. breviligulata an American species. Scientists say the hybrid's traits fall between its parent species in many ways, but the hybrid is taller, which is particularly important because shoot height is an indicator of dune-building potential.
"Understanding the ecological and population genetic consequences of the hybridization is critical in a system where any change in dominant beachgrass species can have large effects on both biodiversity management and coastal protection," Hacker said.
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