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To combat the ever-changing face of the shoreline, engineers and city planners institute a
number of remedies that have potential ill effects to barrier island ecosystems (Pilkey 2007).
Seawalls protect buildings, but at the loss of the beach, and its biotic community, entirely.
Damming of rivers upstream depletes the flow of sediments. Beach renourishment (dredging of
offshore sandbars, trucking in sand from other beaches, or bulldozing sand closer to structures)
has proven to be an expensive but temporary fix (Pilkey 2007). A potentially valuable and less
ecologically disruptive option in the engineer’s toolbox is artificial revegetation. Planting certain
tolerant species of plants has been shown to be an effective dune building method (Woodhouse
1978). The current darling for biotic dune retention is Uniola paniculata, or sea oats.
Unfortunately, growth of sea oats is often slow and actual benefits to the dune environment
provided by solely planting sea oats is not well established (Hooten 2016). Perhaps combining
other native dune species could aid in dune building and retention.
The Dune System

The southeastern dune system spans from southern Virginia to the gulf shores of Mexico
(Oosting 1954). Winds approach the beaches unidirectionally, depositing sand from offshore
banks (Oosting 1954). The beach displays primary successive flora in first the inner, then outer,
and more distal dune beaches (Oosting 1954). Following the dune beaches, small trees and
shrubs appear. This division of progression travels from shrub thicket to maritime forest
(Frankenburg 1997). The farthest progression from shore is the marsh. The marsh begins as salt
marsh retreating into creek marsh before settling into a tidal flat (Oosting 1954).

Breaking waves from the ocean also deposit sand at the high tide line. The sand
accumulates in existing plants and in washed-up detritus (Dubois 1977). The dunes closest to the
beach are typified as foredunes. As more sand accumulates and a ridge is formed, the highest

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