. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Bird Island flora By Ann Green • Photos by Jeff Otto I .n the middle of a hot, dry sandy dune on Bird Island, North Carolina Sea Grant researcher Kristen Rosenfeld notices a tiny sprig of vegetation. "This is a cool plant," says Rosenfeld, a North Carolina State University graduate student. "It is an ; The sea rocket or Cakile edentual is just one type of plant that Rosenfeld finds while surveying the 10-meter square area. She finds five species in this small plot on Bird Island, n
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Bird Island flora By Ann Green • Photos by Jeff Otto I .n the middle of a hot, dry sandy dune on Bird Island, North Carolina Sea Grant researcher Kristen Rosenfeld notices a tiny sprig of vegetation. "This is a cool plant," says Rosenfeld, a North Carolina State University graduate student. "It is an ; The sea rocket or Cakile edentual is just one type of plant that Rosenfeld finds while surveying the 10-meter square area. She finds five species in this small plot on Bird Island, near the tip of Brunswick County off Sunset Beach. 'This is a good number for a plot on a beach," says Rosenfeld. 'There are not many plants that can live in this harshKenvironment. Plants have to be drought tolerant and tolerant of the salt spray from the ocean and ; During the past two summers, Rosenfeld has conducted a vegetation survey on Bird Island, the state's newest coastal reserve. In 2002, the state bought the island for $ million from the Price family of Greensboro. "The plants give an indication of what the ecosystem is like," says Rosenfeld. "About 10 to 15 percent of the beach is covered with vegetation. Preliminary data show that there are more than 125 plant species on the ; One unexpected result was not finding any seabeach amaranth or Amaranthuspumilus, a dune plant that lived on the island until the 1980s, according to Rosenfeld. "We also expected to find a maritime forest, but there is no forested area," she adds. "In fact, there are only a handful of trees on the ; In addition to the dune plants, Sea Grant researchers found large grasslands, shrub thickets and salt marshes dominated by smooth cordgrass, Spartina altemiflora. "We suspect that the grasslands represent the dunes that once faced the ocean 75 or 100 years ago," says Rosenfeld. "This area may give us a clu
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