Introduction

Northern North Carolina and southernmost Virginia coastal regions are composed of a Holocene barrier that hosts large back-barrier eolian dunes. This coastal area has undergone rapid urban development in recent years, outpacing preservation efforts. Many people and agencies are now realizing a need to preserve the unique landforms and ecosystems of this barrier system, including its dunes, because the beauty of the natural environment is what initially drew people to this region. However, to preserve an ecosystem, it must first be understood.

Currently, there are active, partially stable and completely stabilized dunes distributed sporadically along this portion of the North Carolina and Virginia coast. Back-barrier dunes require high sand supply and high wind energy to remain active in the presence of aggressive sand-binding species in humid coastal environments (Hesp and Thom, 1990). There are a number of factors that can increase the sand supply in this region; some are local and others impact the entire region. The purpose of studying these dunes is to determine what factors initiate dune formation in this environment. The first step is to determine the history of the dunes by delineating the internal stratigraphy and establishing the ages of various dune sediment packages and buried paleosols within each dune. Once these dates are known, the timing of dune initiation and stabilization events can be compared with the timing of possible local and regional triggering events.

This study focuses on four active back-barrier dunes. The history of each dune was determined by first defining dune internal stratigraphy with ground penetrating radar (GPR). Samples of buried soils and dune sediment were collected to determine the ages of the various dune components. Radiocarbon dates are presented here; luminescence analysis is still in progress.