Coastal foredune evolution: the relative influence of vegetation and sand supply in the US Pacific Northwest.

ABSTRACT: Biophysical feedbacks between vegetation and sediment are important for forming and modifying landscape features and their ecosystem services. These feedbacks are especially important where landscape features differ in their provision of ecosystem services. For example, the shape of coastal foredunes, a product of both physical and biological forces, determines their ability to protect communities from rising seas and changing patterns of storminess. Here we assessed how sand supply and changes in vegetation over interannual (3 year) and decadal (21 year) scales influenced foredune shape along 100 km of coastline in the US Pacific Northwest. Across 21 years, vegetation switched from one congeneric non-native beachgrass to another (Ammophila arenaria to A. breviligulata) while sand supply r

SUBMITTER: Zarnetske PL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4424676 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature