Reports and Studies 2014 Review: 1975 Environment of Kiawah Report | Page 36

Summary & Analysis of the 1975 Kiawah Environmental Report  valuable providers of “ecosystem services,” such as storm protection, water filtering, and seafood production. They also help lock up as much as 450 billion metric tons of carbon globally, absorbing warming compounds that might otherwise leak into the atmosphere. ... Marshes have already experienced centuries of insults—such as pollution, overfishing, and draining for farming and development—that have disrupted the ecological systems that help keep them healthy. Now, rising temperatures are causing landbased ice sheets to melt and seawater to expand." The 2012 Beach Management Plan also mentions dune vegetation. One species particularly mentioned is seabeach amaranth: Seabeach amaranth is an annual plant that is typically found on barrier islands. Its primary habitat includes overwashed sand flats at accreting ends of barrier islands and lower foredunes and upper strands of noneroding beaches. While the ends of Kiawah Island appear to be suitable habitat for this species, there are no known plants in existence at the present time. Attempts were made to reintroduce this plant to Kiawah Island in the late 1990s but no evidence of survival of the plants is currently available. Monitoring of the island for the presence of this plant is ongoing and involves personnel from SCDNR and USFWS. In cooperation with these entities, plans could be formulated to monitor and maintain populations of this plant if it is documented. Recommendations for Future Work It has been almost 40 years since the survey was performed in these transects. The beach and dune system is always in a state of change, and the plant community composition can be indicative of environmental stress. The island has gone through an extensive development period since 1975. It may be time to recreate the transects and plant surveys and compare results to 1975. Also, a new plant collection should be created to be kept on the island and