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