Impacts of sediment removal from and placement in coastal barrier island systems

Miselis, Jennifer L.; Flocks, James G.; Zeigler, Sara L.; Passeri, Davina L.; Smith, David R.; Bourque, Jill R.; Sherwood, C. R.; Smith, Christopher G.; Ciarletta, Daniel J.; Smith, Kathryn; Hart, K. P.; Kazyak, David C.; Berlin, Alicia; Prohaska, Bianca K.; Calleson, Teresa; Yanchis, Kristi

doi:10.3133/ofr20211062

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Sediment removal and placement on the marine and estuarine environment, associated with activities such as sand mining or channel dredging, pose potential impacts. The horseshoe crab's vulnerability to direct or indirect impacts depends on the mobility of the life stage; eggs, larvae or dormant overwintering adults are more susceptible to entrainment or burial than mobile juveniles or adults (Carmichael, Rutecki & Valiela, 2003; Bopp et al, 2021; Cheng, Chabot & Watson, 2021; Miselis et al, 2021). Munroe et al (2020) studied the effects of intertidal oyster ( Crassostrea virginica ) farms in Delaware Bay on horseshoe crab populations.…”

Section: Assessment Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of recovery potential for the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus): An application of the IUCN green status process

Smith

Brockmann

Carmichael

et al. 2023

Aquatic Conservation

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According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment (RLA), the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), an iconic coastal species, is at risk of extirpation in some regions within its range where small and vulnerable populations occur. However, the RLA does not consider future status beyond viability and does not attempt to identify the conservation necessary to effectively mitigate threats and recover the species to full ecological functionality. To aid in conservation planning for vulnerable species, the IUCN developed the Green Status of Species assessment (GSA) process to complement the RLA. This paper describes the application of the GSA process to assess the recovery potential of the American horseshoe crab. First, specific Limulus populations within spatial units for conservation were delineated, and their statuses were defined based on viability and ecological functionality. Then conservation actions were identified that would promote recovery and affect their near‐ and long‐term population status under different conservation scenarios. Horseshoe crab conservation has relied on, and will continue to depend on, effective harvest regulation. However, as currently conceived, conservation is not expected to mitigate habitat loss at the scale required to restore range‐wide ecological functionality, primarily because habitat loss is widespread and affected by climate change. Thus, the GSA results, while indicating that there is potential for near‐term recovery gains, reveal that long‐term recovery is in doubt owing to expected loss of habitat. To conserve critical habitats for spawning and early life stages and achieve ecological functionality, it is imperative to identify and develop conservation plans at appropriate spatial scales. Unfortunately, such plans do not currently exist and need to be established. The GSA Green Score can then serve as a metric for monitoring recovery and gauging the effectiveness of conservation implementation.

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Section: Assessment Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of recovery potential for the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus): An application of the IUCN green status process

Smith

Brockmann

Carmichael

et al. 2023

Aquatic Conservation

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“…On the other hand, it is unclear whether coastal communities will be able or willing to continue to cover the costs associated with holding the line as sea-level rise accelerates (IPCC, 2014;Kopp et al, 2019), large storms potentially become more frequent (Emanuel, 2005;Emanuel, 2013;Kirshen et al, 2020), and the cost of sand for nourishment practices increases (McNamara et al, 2011). We can therefore envision a third management option that balances the costs and benefits of barrier stabilization and ecosystem services by recognizing the interconnected nature of barriers and their backing marshes and lagoons (Miselis et al, 2021) but retreats at a lower rate than the undeveloped scenario. Relatively little is known about the mechanisms of such an approach, and efforts such as the one presented here can contribute to obtaining t h e r e q u i r e d q u a n t i t a t i v e u n d e r s t a n d i n g f o r practical implementation.…”

Section: Implications For Coastal Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undeveloped and developed phases in the centennial evolution of a barrier-marsh-lagoon system: The case of Long Beach Island, New Jersey

et al. 2022

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Barrier islands and their associated backbarrier environments protect mainland population centers and infrastructure from storm impacts, support biodiversity, and provide long-term carbon storage, among other ecosystem services. Despite their socio-economic and ecological importance, the response of coupled barrier-marsh-lagoon environments to sea-level rise is poorly understood. Undeveloped barrier-marsh-lagoon systems typically respond to sea-level rise through the process of landward migration, driven by storm overwash and landward mainland marsh expansion. Such response, however, can be affected by human development and engineering activities such as lagoon dredging and shoreline stabilization. To better understand the difference in the response between developed and undeveloped barrier-marsh-lagoon environments to sea-level rise, we perform a local morphologic analysis that describes the evolution of Long Beach Island (LBI), New Jersey, over the last 182 years. We find that between 1840 and 1934 the LBI system experienced landward migration of all five boundaries, including 171 meters of shoreline retreat. Between the 1920s and 1950s, however, there was a significant shift in system behavior that coincided with the onset of groin construction, which was enhanced by beach nourishment and lagoon dredging practices. From 1934 to 2022 the LBI system experienced ~22 meters of shoreline progradation and a rapid decline in marsh platform extent. Additionally, we extend a morphodynamic model to describe the evolution of the system in terms of five geomorphic boundaries: the ocean shoreline and backbarrier-marsh interface, the seaward and landward lagoon-marsh boundaries, and the landward limit of the inland marsh. We couple this numerical modeling effort with the map analysis during the undeveloped phase of LBI evolution, between 1840 and 1934. Despite its simplicity, the modeling framework can describe the average cross-shore evolution of the barrier-marsh-lagoon system during this period without accounting for human landscape modifications, supporting the premise that natural processes were the key drivers of morphological change. Overall, these results suggest that anthropogenic effects have played a major role in the evolution of LBI over the past century by altering overwash fluxes and marsh-lagoon geometry; this is likely the case for other barrier-marsh-lagoon environments around the world.

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“…Management of coastal systems through restoration of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) can help to mitigate adverse effects while providing benefits such as restored ecosystem habitats and reduced flooding and shoreline erosion (Sutton-Grier et al, 2015;DeAngelis et al, 2020;Palinkas et al, 2022). Sediment is a critical natural resource with applications in coastal system restoration (Parson and Swafford, 2012;Miselis et al, 2021), habitat restoration/creation using dredge spoil (Parson and Swafford, 2012), and shoreline nourishment (Suedel et al, 2021). Creation of living shorelines can help reduce lateral erosion in marshes by dampening wave energy (e.g., Polk et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the effects of interior headland restoration on estuarine sediment transport processes in a marine-dominant estuary

Jenkins,

Passeri,

Smith

et al. 2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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The effects of interior headland restoration on estuarine sediment transport processes were assessed through process-based numerical modeling. Three proposed interior headland restoration scenarios in the Grand Bay estuary (Mississippi/Alabama) were modeled using Delft3D to understand impacts on suspended sediment concentrations, bed level morphology, and sediment fluxes under present-day conditions and a sea level rise (SLR) of 0.5 m, representing a high projection of SLR by the year 2050. Model results showed localized differences in bed levels near the restored features after a year of simulated morphologic change. The restored headland features acted as a sediment source to the immediate surroundings while also providing some non-significant sheltering effect of backshore shoals and marsh shorelines. Sediment fluxes were sensitive to wind directions and the presence of the restored headlands. However, regardless of wind direction, mean sea level, or restoration action, the greatest sediment fluxes were always export fluxes from the estuary, which were further increased with increased sea level. Suspended sediment concentrations were highly influenced by SLR in a non-linear manner. Sediment concentrations both increased and decreased depending on depth under SLR. Furthermore, SLR allowed for the suspension and deposition of sediments on the marsh platform. Overall, the influence of SLR was more impactful to changing sediment dynamics than the influence of the restoration features.

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Impacts of sediment removal from and placement in coastal barrier island systems

Cited by 4 publications

References 131 publications

Assessment of recovery potential for the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus): An application of the IUCN green status process

Assessment of recovery potential for the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus): An application of the IUCN green status process

Undeveloped and developed phases in the centennial evolution of a barrier-marsh-lagoon system: The case of Long Beach Island, New Jersey

Modeling the effects of interior headland restoration on estuarine sediment transport processes in a marine-dominant estuary

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