Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the coast of New Jersey in 2012, causing catastrophic impacts to coastal communities along the coasts of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. After the storm, as the federal government responded with emergency sediment placement projects, coastal communities wanted to know when their barrier islands would get back to normal. 

 

This study highlights the scale of sediment resources required to respond to extreme storms, demonstrates how long different barrier island environments take to recover, and suggests that working with barrier island morphology may lead to more efficient and effective use of coastal sediment resources. Unlike many previous studies, this work includes the shoreface, or the submerged zone adjacent to the beach, which provides a novel perspective on sediment redistribution from storms and shows that elevation-building capacity of barrier islands may be overestimated. Further, an extended post-storm observation period shows that sediment recovery is incomplete despite human interventions. The findings have important implications for predictions of barrier island longevity, critical information for the coastal communities, economies, and habitats they support.

 

The paper was selected to be featured as an Editorial Highlight, which showcases the top 50 recent publications in Earth Science in Nature Communications.