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Posted by emilyholden on March 25, 2016

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Coastal foredunes, such as the ones pictured here from Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina, USA, form via biophysical feedbacks between sand and vegetation and are vulnerable to sea level rise and increased storm intensity. In their study published in the October issue of Ecosphere, Jay et al. used regression models and hierarchical partitioning to assess the relative roles of sand supply, vegetation, and beach morphology in shaping foredune morphology along a 300-km stretch of the US Central Atlantic coast. The authors found that sand supply and beach width explained the most variation in foredune height and width, while grass density and changes in grass density contributed significantly to foredune morphology change.

Ecosphere