Carbon in the Coastal Foredune: Implications for the Barrier Island Carbon Budget

Coastal dunes are widespread, occurring globally on sandy shorelines, however, they remain underrepresented in blue carbon research. We quantified carbon stocks and vegetation–carbon relationships across foredunes of different types and ages on a barrier island located on the east coast of the U.S. Sediment cores, vegetation surveys, and topographic profiles across three dune types (primary, secondary and tertiary) and three age classes (~7, ~11, and >20 years) reveal mean total carbon to 0.5 m depth is 1.07 kg C m⁻², divided between belowground biomass carbon (65%), sand carbon (34%), and aboveground biomass carbon (1%), with no significant differences by dune position, age, or type. Vegetation communities differed significantly with dune type and age, suggesting that ecological succession in dune systems may precede measurable differences in carbon. Our results caution against extrapolating from vegetation patterns to carbon stocks.