Award: DEB-1832221

The Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research (VCR LTER) project focused on understanding the ecology of the shallow coastal bays, barrier islands and extensive salt marshes that typical of coastlines on most continents (Figure 1). The project examined  climate drivers, changes both within and between coastal ecosystems, and the consequences of those changes on habitat provisioning, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and other ecosystem functions. The Virginia Coast Reserve on the mid-Atlantic Coast is within the most extensive stretch of undisturbed coastal barrier systems in the world, an international biosphere reserve, and an ideal location for assessing ecosystem change in shallow coastal systems. 

Long-term data show that climate drivers have changed in the last 3-4 decades, with increasing wind intensity, storm surge, and water temperatures. (Figure 2).  Historically, this undeveloped landscape has been a shifting mosaic, where losses of an ecosystem in one region were counterbalanced by gains in another. However, new analyses show directional changes. A 1984-2020 retrospective study (Figure 3) showed a loss of barrier island area (sand to water), although the cover of woody plants (shrubs) has increased due to warmer winters and positive feedbacks from dune grasses, which insulate shrub seedlings from damaging cold winds (Figure 4).  Salt marshes are keeping pace with rising seas, but there has been landscape-level loss due barrier island migration burying marshes outpacing marsh migration into forests and fields on the mainland. Like the rest of the Mid-Atlantic, maritime forest retreat is happening more slowly than sea-level rise in the Virginia Coast Reserve, implying forests can resist sea level rise for decades. At the salt marsh/forest boundary, so called 'ghost forests' are created as trees die off due to increased flooding caused by sea level rise and salination of the underlying soils.

Long-term, landscape-scale restoration of seagrass and intertidal oyster reefs have reinstated these ecosystems into the coastal landscape. The seagrass restoration experiment was initiated in 2001 and has now grown to be the world’s largest seagrass restoration. Restored seagrass meadows reached maturity within a decade, reinstating ecological services. Restored seagrass have over six times more fish and two times as much fish diversity in seagrass areas vs unvegetated (bare) areas and doubled carbon storage in sediments within a decade. A new analysis of deep sediment cores showed important long-term effects of seagrass on carbon storage, finding large amounts of legacy seagrass carbon buried in sediments that date back to at least the 1700s.  However, longer term measurements showed that marine heat waves with sustained high water-temperatures (as in 2015) can drastically reduce seagrass densities, but that meadows recover in 2-4 years (Figure 5). Experimental oyster reefs representing different configurations (varying in width, height and type of material) were created starting in 2009 to assess which reef types were most successful and how effective reefs were in helping protect adjacent salt marshes from erosion. Reef height was found to be most important, with oyster densities and reef success increasing with reef height. These reefs are also more effective at reducing wave energy to protect adjacent marshes than lower elevation reefs.  Restored reefs matched or exceeded the ecological functions of reference reefs 6 years after establishment (Figure 6). 

Shorebirds use barrier islands for feeding and breeding, including several threatened species. Migratory shorebirds rely on peat banks, which are exposed as islands migrate landward in response to storms and sea-level rise, and sandy beaches, which dominate on the more stable, slower migrating islands. Nearly 20 years of data showed that chick survival was higher in overwash-dominated regions of islands vs. dune-dominated regions), and that the distribution and numbers of birds were driven by the abundance of prey (e.g., clams, mussel spat, crustaceans) which varied on sandy vs. peat-bank intertidal habitats.

Project participants included 32 investigators who trained 92 graduate students, 10 post-doctoral associates and 22 Research Experience for Undergraduates students.

VCR LTER researchers disseminated information through the scientific literature, open-access datasets, and collaborations with government agencies and non-profit organizations. Researchers 206 papers in scientific journals and six book chapters, and 369 VCR LTER datasets were made available to the public and researchers through the Environmental Data Initiative, 87 of which have a duration of 10 years or longer. VCR LTER studies are informing policy and management decisions at national and state levels made by NOAA, USFWS, Virginia Department of Wildlife Research, The Nature Conservancy and the Virginia State government, and at the international scale (on carbon offset market credits).

To increase impacts beyond the VCR LTER project itself, over 20 K-12 teachers received professional development training in watershed and ecological science, often including direct research experiences. As a result, all 4^th and 5^th graders at the local Kiptopeake Elementary School were exposed to the method, and all 6^th grade students in Northampton County, VA completed hands-on projects with using water-quality analysis tools.

Last Modified: 09/28/2026
Modified by: John H Porter