Scale dependent behavior the foredune: Implications for barrier island response to storms and sea level rise

Abstract:

The impact of elevated storm surge on a barrier island tends to be considered from a single cross-shore dimension and dependent only on the relative elevations of the storm surge and dune. However, the foredune line is rarely uniform and can exhibit considerable variation in height and width alongshore at a range of length scales ranging from tens of meters to several kilometers. LiDAR data from Santa Rosa Island in northwest Florida, Padre Island, Texas and Assateague Island, Maryland are used to explore how the dune morphology varies alongshore and how this variability is altered by storms and post-storm recovery. While the alongshore variation in dune height can be approximated by a power law, there are scale-dependent variations in the dune that exhibit different responses to storm erosion and post-storm recovery. This suggests that the alongshore variation in dune morphology reflects the history of storm impact and recovery, and that changes in the variance magnitude through time may provide insight into whether the island will be resilient as it transgresses with rising sea level. The difference in variance magnitude at large spatial scales is associated with the framework geology unique to each island and a dominant control on island response to sea level rise.