
We suggest that the extent and form of beach-dune recovery is dependent on the impact scale of the storm and may represent a reinforced process once alongshore variations in dune height are initialized. It shows that scanning laser with a footprint diameter of 0.38 m and a sampling interval of 1.5 m to 2 m can be used to measure the morphological characteristics of shrub coppice dunes in the desert grasslands of southern New Mexico with acceptable accuracy and precision for a range of uses, including important geomorphological and hydrological. Thus, the response and recovery of adjacent, but morphologically distinct, dunes is quite different over the same sequence of storm activity. The largest dune was scoured at the base and experienced little poststorm recovery, except for beachface recovery. The intermediate dune was completely eroded by the storm but also exhibited the greatest recovery through the migration of accretionary mounds driven by aeolian transport, leading to the development of embryo dunes forming the modern dune core.

Source for information on coppice dune: A Dictionary of Earth Sciences dictionary. Results from the smallest dune suggest that the dune experienced little net erosion during the storm but also exhibited the least recovery. coppice dune A sand dune that forms around and in the lee of a clump of vegetation. Identical, laterally continuous radar reflectors were observed at each site at a depth of ~1.2 m and interpreted as a storm surface. We used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and vibracores to investigate subsurface structures for foredunes of different heights within a 2.5-km section of beach at Padre Island National Seashore, Texas. The impact of storms is complicated by the tendency of dune morphology to vary alongshore at a range of spatial scales, and it is reasonable to assume that this variable response will be preserved within subsurface stratigraphy. The response and recovery of barrier islands to extreme storms and ultimately to relative sea-level rise depends on the height and extent of the foredunes relative to storm surge. Poststorm evolution of beach-dune morphology: Padre Island National Seashore, Texas.
