Fig. 1: Alongshore distribution of barrier elevation and barrier classification.
From: Permanent loss of barrier island resilience due to a critical transition in dune ecosystems
a The study area comprises the Virginia Barrier Islands (VBI), where we analyzed five representative islands and divided Metompkin into two sections (North and South) with very different morphological characteristics (see the “Methods” section). b Alongshore distributions of barrier elevation h showing the three types of barrier islands classified based on their elevation: “Barren” islands (h ≲ 1 m) that lack vegetated dunes and are dominated by a beach berm with typically unvegetated overwash fans (c), “high” islands (h ≳ 1 m) with well-developed dunes stabilized by vegetation (d), and “mixed” islands with a broad distribution of elevations (e.g. South Metompkin). The distribution functions predicted by our stochastic model (Eq. (2)) are shown as solid lines in (b). c, d Map data: © Google, Landsat/Copernicus.
