The four sites of the NCNERR – Currituck Banks, Zeke’s Island, Masonboro Island, and Rachel Carson – are comprised of marsh, beach, dune, and maritime forest habitat. Key management issues for these sites include water quality concerns, invasive species, erosion, atmospheric deposition, coastal storms, and sea level rise. NCNERR is also part of a national effort, created in 2007, to establish salt marshes as long-term reference sites at five reserves (Narragansett; Wells, Maine; Chesapeake Bay, Virginia; North Carolina; South Slough, Oregon). In addition, the reserve, along with other NERRs, participates in the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP), tracking changes in water quality, plants, animals, and habitats within the reserve over time. Salt marshes, found at Zeke’s Island, Masonboro Island, and the Rachel Carson sites (Currituck Banks has brackish marshes), provide valuable habitat for fish, crabs, and other wildlife, and important ecosystem services by filtering water and protecting shorelines during strong coastal storms. Salt marshes at these sites are threatened by climate change; impacts of concern include sea level rise, warmer temperatures, coastal storms, salinity intrusion, and erosion.

This project is funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and has two goals: 1) use natural marshes as references to understand what is happening at restored marshes, and 2) use these natural reference sites to understand how marshes across the United States are responding to the impacts of climate change. The reserve is monitoring salt marsh characteristics (e.g., salinity, vegetation cover, flow patterns, peat soils) at natural marsh reference sites and recently restored marsh sites every year to track water levels and marsh height in order to determine if and how salt marshes can respond to sea level rise and other climate impacts.