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Spatial–Temporal Dynamics in Barrier Island Upland Vegetation: The Overlooked Coastal Landscape

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Abstract

Barrier islands provide the first line of defense against storms for millions of people living in coastal areas. Upland vegetation (that is, grassland, shrubland, and maritime forest) has received little attention, even though this land surface is most strongly affected by development pressures. We use remote-sensing analysis to assess state change on seven undeveloped Virginia barrier islands over 27 years (1984–2011) that are free from direct human influence. Our analysis highlights the spatial–temporally dynamic nature of barrier island upland land area and vegetation, with rapidly changing ecosystem states. Over the time period, upland vegetation was dramatically reduced by 29% whereas woody vegetation cover increased 40% across all islands. Although conversions between sand, grassland, and woody vegetation were variable within each island, three major patterns of vegetative land-cover change were apparent: overall loss of vegetative cover, frequent transitions between grass and woody cover, and gain in woody cover. These patterns are valuable for understanding natural evolution of barrier islands in response to sea-level rise. Evaluation of temporal dynamics in barrier upland is needed to characterize underlying processes including island resilience or chronic stress, and is a prerequisite to sustainable coastal management- and resilience-based planning, especially when implementing ecosystem-based solutions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by an NSF Grant (DEB – 1237733) to the University of Virginia for LTER-related work at the Virginia Coast Reserve. The authors thank Joseph Thompson, April Harris, Joseph Brown, Ashley Moulton, the subject matter editor, and two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the readability of the manuscript+. The authors also thank Rick Ward and John Porter for assistance with image analysis.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, 23284, USA

    Julie C. Zinnert, Sheri A. Shiflett, Stephen Via, Spencer Bissett, Benjamin Dows, Paul Manley & Donald R. Young

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  1. Julie C. Zinnert
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  2. Sheri A. Shiflett
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  3. Stephen Via
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Correspondence to Julie C. Zinnert.

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Author Contributions

JCZ, SAS and DRY conceived and designed the research project. All authors performed research and analyzed the data. JCZ wrote the manuscript. DRY provided editorial advice.

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Zinnert, J.C., Shiflett, S.A., Via, S. et al. Spatial–Temporal Dynamics in Barrier Island Upland Vegetation: The Overlooked Coastal Landscape. Ecosystems 19, 685–697 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-9961-6

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