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- Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes
- A Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations “virtual field trip” that examines the causes and effects of changes in sea level, both short-term (as a result of storms) and long-term (as a result of climate change).
- Format: slideshow (multiple pages)
- An eroded dune
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 4
- Figure 3 shows an eroded dune in front of a beachfront condominium project. As in the case of the house in Figure 2, this beach and dune eroded rapidly during Hurricanes Bonnie and Fran, but rising sea level played a role by bringing the sea up to a level...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- What causes sea level change, and why is it rising now?
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 2
- North Carolina's coastal zone preserves evidence of both the current rise in sea level and the long decline that preceded it (see the Coastal Wetlands field trip included in this series). Evidence of declining sea level is found in the series of old shorelines...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- A land of many wetlands
- In Wetlands of the coastal plains, page 1
- Eastern North Carolina is a land of many wetlands. More than forty different types have been identified by botanists with the state's Natural Heritage Program. Geographically, this wetland heritage was achieved in the most straightforward way: all of the land...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Changes in sea level, great and small
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 1
- The level of the sea is always changing. These changes may be small and short-lived, as when water rushes up the beach after waves break, but others are large and long-lived — as has been the case with the post-glacial rise of the present era. Small-scale...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Waves and erosion
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 5
- Figure 4 shows that rising sea level brings the eroding power of waves to the sound side of barrier islands as well as to the ocean side. Here we see the steep and collapsing face of an old beach ridge along the Roosevelt Nature Trail on the sound side of...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Flooded marsh
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 10
- Rising sea level also breaks up continuous expanses of salt marsh, like those shown in Figures 6 and 7, into smaller habitats like the one shown here. Isolated islands of salt marsh are often, but not always, a sign of rising sea level and marsh erosion. The...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Maritime forest
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 13
- Pine forests are not the only type of forest that salt marshes can invade during periods of rising sea level. Figure 12 shows a salt marsh in an area between beach ridges on Bogue Banks extending laterally into a maritime forest of live oaks and other hardwoods....
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- A low-lying peninsula
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 6
- We now take a virtual leap from a barrier island to the far end of Carteret County's Down East peninsula. This peninsula separates Bogue Sound from the Neuse River estuary, but does so with a flat and low-lying land. This characteristic of the land was noticed...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Hurricane storm surges
- In Hurricanes on sandy shorelines: Lessons for development, page 5
- Figure 2 illustrates just how high hurricane storm surges can get along the gently sloping shorefaces of the southeastern United States. The photograph is of an exhibit at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The exhibit stands 6.5 feet above mean sea...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- 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.
- Small and large sand volume islands
- In Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 1
- This field trip follows another in this series, Small Sand Volume Islands. Readers should plan to take these trips sequentially, to compare the two types of islands. The thesis of both trips is that the volume of sand that comprises...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- How is coastal sand formed into barrier islands?
- In Small sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks, page 2
- Coastal sand is organized into barrier islands when three conditions are met: There is a supply of sand sufficient to form islands; sea level is rising; and there are winds and waves with sufficient energy to move the sand around....
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Subtidal seafloor
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 9
- Salt marshes do well in irregularly flooded areas, but rising sea level continuously converts these areas into regularly flooded habitats and then into a new seafloor. Some marsh plants, especially smooth cordgrass, can tolerate the first of these conversions,...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Pine forest and salt marsh
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 11
- Other aspects of salt marsh distribution are also indicators of recent sea level rise. The best example is found where salt marsh plants are extending their range into habitats dominated by plants that cannot tolerate frequent exposure to salt water. This...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- A beachfront house threatened by erosion
- In Evidence of rising sea level: Coastal erosion and plant community changes, page 3
- Figure 2 shows a beachfront house being undercut by waves. Unfortunately, this kind of damage happens frequently as sea level rises and erosion eats into the shoreline. Erosion into housing areas usually occurs when something happens to increase the local...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Conjunction of the Cape Fear River and the Northeast Cape Fear River
- In Cape Fear estuaries: From river to sea, page 4
- The town of Wilmington is located at the junction of the Northeast Cape Fear and Cape Fear rivers. In this photo the Cape Fear River is entering from the bottom. The water in the Cape Fear River is just turning salty as it reaches Wilmington, the zero salinity...
- By Steve Keith.
- Climbing the trail
- A trekker climbs stone steps in the Annapurna foothills. Trekking in the mountain regions of Nepal involves a lot of walking up and down, at times covering several thousand feet in altitude along the way. This particular trek begins in Tirkhedhunga which is...
- Format: image/photograph
- What is a wetland, and why do we have so many types?
- In Wetlands of the coastal plains, page 2
- The legal definition of a wetland has become controversial as wetlands have gained a measure of protection from uncontrolled ditching and draining. This protection has been accorded them as their role in sustaining high water quality and wildlife habitat has...
- By Dirk Frankenberg.
- Wetlands of the coastal plains
- This Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations “virtual field trip” explores the various wetlands of North Carolina's coastal plain and the plant communities found there.
- Format: slideshow (multiple pages)
