Study gives new insight into how climate change is transforming Virginia’s barrier islands

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

A new study of Virginia’s barrier islands off the coast of the Eastern Shore provides a fundamental understanding of how barrier islands will change in the near future amid a warming climate, sea-level rise and storm events such as hurricanes and nor’easters.

The study by researchers with the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University offers important insights into the ecological and geomorphic processes occurring on Virginia’s chain of 23 uninhabited islands stretching from Assateague at the Maryland border to Fisherman Island near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, as well as other barrier islands along the East Coast that help protect the mainland from storms that — thanks to climate change — are increasing in frequency and intensity.

Barrier islands have been shown to be naturally resilient in response to relative sea-level rise by migrating landward via an “overwash” process that deposits sediment onto the islands’ backbarrier marsh, thereby maintaining elevation above sea level.

This study, which explored the role of interior island vegetation in this process, found that sediment movement from upland to marsh is being stymied by an expansion of woody vegetation brought about by a warming winter climate.

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