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Barrier Islands/Coastal Marshes

Ecoregion in NJ, NY

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Beaches, dunes, barrier islands, salt marshes, bluffs, and bays compose the Barrier Islands/Coastal Marshes ecoregion. These coastal features were created from the terminal moraines of Pleistocene ice sheets. Barrier islands protect the mainland from erosion by ocean storms, but they are often eroded on their seaward side by wave action and sometimes breached by violent storms or hurricanes. Barrier islands are maintained by eroded sediments carried along shore by ocean currents and deposited on the islands. Typically, two parallel dune zones line the seaward side of barrier islands. Dune grass, sea rocket, saltwort, and seaside spurge grow in the primary dune zone. Low shrub thickets composed of bayberry, beach plum, shadbush, mountain laurel, and highbush blueberry grow in the secondary dune zone. American holly, black gum, red cedar, pitch pine, dwarf beech, sassafras, and lianas of roundleaf sweetbriar occur in moist, protected hollows and swales on barrier islands and narrow peninsulas. On the bay side of barrier islands, salt marshes are populated mainly by smooth and salt-meadow cordgrass. In addition to providing beach recreation for human visitors, barrier islands serve as important nesting sites for several endangered or threatened birds, such as the piping plover, black skimmer, common tern, and least tern.

— EPA

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