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Carolina. These strategies make H. bonariensis a good candidate to plant alongside Uniola
paniculata for dune stabilization efforts.
Introduction

Over one half of the United States’ population and up to ten percent of the world’s
population live within fifty miles of the coast (Feagin 2015, NOAA.gov). Simultaneously, the
density of human settlement for both recreation and permanent domicile increases while the
landscape of the shores changes dynamically (Feagin 2015). Aggravating an already constantly
changing environment is the current conundrum of sea level rise (Pilkey 2007). Sea level rise is
proposed to affect up to 670 million humans by the year 2100 (Mimura 2013). Impacts of the
rising sea waters would exacerbate erosion of sandy beaches, worsen saltwater inundation, and
lead to destruction of coastal domiciles and industrial buildings (Mimura 2013). While the
current political climate in the United States leans away from the acknowledgement of
anthropologically induced climate change, recent studies have indicated that humans have caused
an increase in sea level rise from 1.7 cm per century historically to approximately 14 cm per
century at present (Kopp 2016). Additionally, rapidly rising ocean temperatures fan the flame of
sea level rise and contribute energy for stronger storm events (Bender 2010). Due to the
cumulative effects of these processes, there exists a dire need for engineering and biotic
countermeasures to strengthen coastal communities.

Understanding how the barrier island environment functions as an ecotone between land
and sea is an important part of finding a workable solution for making coastal communities more
resilient (Joesting 2011). Barrier islands are the first ecosystems to experience the ill effects of
climate change, acting as an effective buffer to the coastal mainland (Hancock 2009). Climate
change deniers have proposed that sea level and coastal habitats are always changing—reasoning

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