Topographic–Vegetation Interactions on an Incipient Foredune Field Post-Tropical Storm

Sand dunes protect the most important economic and ecologically critical landscapes from coastal hazards (storms and high-tide flooding). The characteristics of the dune affect their protective ability. This paper qualitatively and quantitatively assesses the relationships between pre- and post-storm conditions for vegetation and the morphology of an incipient dune system along the South Carolina coast. Field-based dune vegetation and morphology measurements were obtained before and after tropical storm Dorian (2019). Vegetation is assessed with respect to distribution and functional type, and subgroups are introduced to categorize land cover transitions. At the quadrat scale (0.2 m2) following the storm, there was a shift from stabilizer to builder, a decrease of sand (2%), and the vegetation remained consistent at around 61% of the land cover. Transect-level analysis (0.2 m × 1.0 m) revealed distinct variability concerning post-storm morphology change in the extreme study site extents. Dorian resulted in approximately 10% volumetric loss over the entire study site (101 m2). This study demonstrated changes to a dune system following a tropical storm with wind as the dominant forcing factor. This study revealed that vegetation presence is not broadly correlated with reduced levels of post-storm erosion.