Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Onslow Beach Washover Vegetation 2012-2016

Critical military training and testing on lands along the nation’s coastal and estuarine shorelines are increasingly placed at risk because of encroachment pressures in surrounding areas, impairments due to other anthropogenic disturbances, and changes in climate and sea level. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) intends to enhance and sustain its training and testing assets and also optimize its stewardship of natural resources through the development and application of an ecosystem-based management approach on DoD installations. To accomplish this goal, particularly for installations in estuarine/coastal environments, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) launched the Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP) as a 10-year effort at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (MCBCL) in North Carolina. The results of the second 5 years of the program (DCERP2) are presented in the DCERP2 Final Report. There were four overarching objectives of DCERP2. The first objective was to understand the effects of climate change impacts, including warming temperatures, variability in the hydrological cycle, storm events, and sea level rise on the coastal ecosystems at MCBCL from observations and measurements made over the 10-year program. The second objective was to understand the carbon cycle of the coastal and terrestrial ecosystems at MCBCL through a highly integrated sampling program. The third objective was to develop models, tools, and indicators to evaluate current and projected future ecosystem state changes and translate scientific findings into actionable information for installation managers. The last objective was to recommend adaptive management strategies to sustain ecosystem natural resources within the context of an active military installation. The percent cover of the aerial portions of all living plants were estimated on each of three Coastal Barrier washover fans that experienced different histories. Vegetation was sampled because the amount and types of vegetation affects sediment dynamics locally and the behavior of many organisms including ground nesting shorebirds, both of which were of interest to CB-5 in DCERP2.

美国沿海与河口沿岸地带的关键军事训练与试验活动正日益面临多重风险，这些风险源自周边区域的侵占压力、其他人为活动造成的生态损害，以及气候与海平面变化。美国国防部（U.S. Department of Defense, DoD）旨在通过在国防部设施中开发并应用基于生态系统的管理方法，强化并维持其训练与试验资产，同时优化自然资源管理工作。为实现这一目标，尤其是针对河口/沿海环境中的设施，战略环境研究与发展计划（Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, SERDP）启动了国防沿海/河口研究计划（Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program, DCERP），该计划为期10年，落地于北卡罗来纳州的海军陆战队勒琼营（Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, MCBCL）。本成果呈现了该计划第二个5年阶段（DCERP2）的研究内容，即《DCERP2最终报告》。

DCERP2共有四大核心目标：其一，基于10年研究周期内的观测与实测数据，探明气候变化影响——包括气温升高、水文循环变异、风暴事件及海平面上升——对MCBCL沿海生态系统的作用机制；其二，通过高度集成的采样计划，解析MCBCL沿海与陆地生态系统的碳循环过程；其三，开发模型、工具与指标体系，以评估当前及预测未来生态系统状态变化，并将科学研究成果转化为可供设施管理人员直接使用的决策支持信息；其四，提出适应性管理策略，以在军事设施持续运行的背景下维持生态系统自然资源的健康状态。

研究团队在三处具有不同演化历史的海岸屏障冲扇上，对所有活植物体的地上部分盖度进行了估算。开展植被采样的原因在于，植被的数量与类型会影响局地泥沙动力过程，以及包括地面筑巢滨鸟在内的多种生物的生存行为，而这两点均为DCERP2中CB-5项目的核心关注方向。