Dirk Frankenberg
Dr. Dirk Frankenberg was an internationally known professor of marine sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who spent the last 10 years of his career writing books about North Carolina’s natural beauty and helping to preserve it. Frankenberg led both UNC-CH’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City from 1980 to 1993 and its Marine Sciences Curriculum from 1974 to 1990. Before joining UNC-CH in 1974, he served on the University of Georgia faculty and was director of the National Science Foundation’s ocean sciences division from 1978 to 1980.
He was the author of several books, including The Nature of the Outer Banks and The Nature of North Carolina’s Southern Coast, and edited Exploring North Carolina’s Natural Areas, in which he and a large group of North Carolina naturalists introduced state residents and visitors to parks, nature preserves and hiking trails stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains.
He also served on numerous boards and commissions including the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, the N.C. Blue Ribbon Advisory Commission on Oysters and as chair of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences. Among his scientific interests were carbon in estuaries and among his educational efforts were promoting scientific careers among minorities and science and nature education on the web.
Dr. Frankenburg died in 2000 at the age of 62.
Resources created by Dirk Frankenberg
Records 81–100 of 419 displayed: go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ...
- Cypress/Gum Swamp
- Format: image/photograph
- Damage from Hurricane Floyd
- Damage from Hurricane Floyd to Oak Island, North Carolina, 1999.
- Format: image/photograph
- Defending the shoreline
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 14
- Owners of property on both the peninsula and the barrier island are not pleased when rising sea level kills their trees and increases the likelihood that their land and buildings will be flooded during storms. There is a continuing controversy about whether...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Detail of storm surge exhibit showing data from recent local storms
- Format: image/photograph
- A developing chestnut oak forest
- In Elevations and forest types along the Blue Ridge Parkway, page 4
- Figure 2 shows a younger forest at about 2200 feet, with smaller oaks, a relatively open canopy, and the dense shrub and small tree layer (called the understory by ecologists) that develops on the floor of open-canopied forests. Note also the twisting...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Developing salt marsh
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 12
- In case you were doubtful that salt marshes can really invade and take over forested areas, I have included Figure 11 to lay these doubts to rest. In this photograph you will see a developing salt marsh with the trunks and roots of the preexisting forest still...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Developing Salt Marsh
- Format: image/photograph
- Diagram of hurricane storm surge heights
- Format: image/illustration
- Diagram of sand exchange
- Format: image/illustration
- Diverse species
- In Jocassee Gorges: Temperate rain forests of the Blue Ridge, page 10
- The forests of the high slopes are mixed mesophytic forests found on creek and river slopes. Those found below 2,500 feet in open areas are characterized by a greater richness of species than is found in any other vegetation type in the region. This richness...
- By Dirk Frankenberg and Stephanie Walters.
- Dune building and stabilization project on Bogue Banks
- Format: image/photograph
- Dune destruction without structural damage on Oak Island
- Format: image/photograph
- Dune erosion on Bear Island
- In Hurricanes on sandy shorelines: Lessons for development, page 10
- Figure 7 shows that not all of the barrier islands are flattened when hurricanes make landfall over them. This photograph shows the beach and seawardmost dunes of Bear Island after five hurricanes battered them in two years. The remnants of dead maritime thicket...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Dune Erosion on Bear Island(east End of bear island)
- Format: image/photograph
- Dune Erosion on Oak Island
- Format: image/photograph
- Dune erosion on Oak Island (1)
- In Hurricanes on sandy shorelines: Lessons for development, page 11
- Shoreface construction on southeastern barrier islands rarely fares well when hurricanes make landfall over them. Figure 8 shows how this generalization played out on Oak Island during Hurricane Floyd. The houses were behind a small primary dune before the...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Dune erosion on Oak Island (2)
- In Hurricanes on sandy shorelines: Lessons for development, page 12
- Figure 9 shows another set of oceanfront houses after Hurricane Floyd's landfall. This dune, too, has been flattened, leaving some houses standing on the beach and some not standing at all. Note, however, that the beach under the house in the foreground is...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Dune formation
- In Natural and human impacts on the northern Outer Banks, page 4
- The migration of dunes in response to the prevailing winds is an important process on the Outer Banks. Nags Head Woods is flanked on three sides by large dune fields. To the north of the woods is the Run Hill dune field. Run Hill Dune is an unusually large,...
- By Blair Tormey and Dirk Frankenberg.
- Dune grasses
- In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 18
- There are things people can do to retain or increase sand volume on barrier islands. One of these is to plant dune grasses like those in Figure 17. Not only do such plantings stabilize the sand that already exists by reducing the ability of wind to move it...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Dune migration
- In Natural and human impacts on the northern Outer Banks, page 6
- At the northern border of Nags Head Woods, one can see clear evidence of the migration of Run Hill Dune into and over Nag Head Woods due to the stronger northeast winds. This migration is occurring rapidly enough to bury entire trees within a matter of years...
- By Blair Tormey and Dirk Frankenberg.
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