Coastal Landscapes: South Jersey from the Air

By Kenneth W. Able

New Jersey has roughly one hundred and thirty miles of coastline, including a wide array of habitats from marshes to ocean beaches, each hosting a unique ecosystem. Yet these coastal landscapes are quite dynamic, changing rapidly as a result of commercial development, environmental protection movements, and of course climate change. Now more than ever, it is vital to document these landscapes before they disappear. 
 
Based on numerous aerial images from helicopter and drone flights between 2015 and 2021, this book provides extensive photographs and maps of the New Jersey coast, from the Pine Barrens to the ocean beaches. The text associated with each exceptional image describes it in detail, including its location, ecological setting, and relative position within the larger landscape. Author Kenneth Able, director of the Rutgers University Marine Field Station for over thirty years, has thoroughly ground-truthed each image by observations made through kayaks, boats, and wading through marshes. Calling upon his decades of expertise, Able paints a compelling portrait of coastal New Jersey’s stunning natural features, resources, history, and possible futures in an era of rising sea levels. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Release date: Jun 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781978833746

Book preview

1

INTRODUCTION

The diverse coastal landscapes of New Jersey are composed of numerous inlets, estuaries, and bays and other habitats especially in the region from northern Barnegat Bay to Cape May. The inlets are dynamic and have changed frequently over time. Their importance cannot be underestimated because their number and size strongly influence the twice daily exchange of water between the ocean and the back bays. This in turn controls, to a large degree, the production of the plants and animals that live in these waters. This is especially true for the fishes and crabs that mature in the waters of the estuaries and bays behind the barrier islands that form the outer edge of the coast. These are of two basic types: lagoonal estuaries such as Barnegat Bay, with relatively little freshwater input from rivers, and drowned river valley estuaries, which have more freshwater input and thus more variation in salinity, such as for the Mullica River–Great Bay watershed. Of particular interest are the numerous and varied habitats that make up the landscapes and consist of extensive marshes, seagrass beds, numerous intertidal and subtidal creeks, and other shallow waters. At the same time these varied habitats are influenced by the seasonal and year-round human populations that insist on living near the water all along the New Jersey shore.

This book provides unique insights into New Jersey’s coastal landscapes, from the Pine Barrens to ocean beaches, based on aerial images from a helicopter and occasionally by drone, with groundtruthing by kayak, motorboat, or with my boots on. Based on images captured from 2015 to 2021, it interprets landscape-scale subjects including natural features, relics of the past, human influences, connections between people, places, and resources, and effects on the environment including rising sea levels. The locations for the images for each of these subject areas are depicted generally and for each chapter. Together, the aerial images, maps, and associated text provide rare insights into coastal New Jersey both historically and today and provide an understanding of how we have modified, managed, and protected these landscapes.

2.1. Locations for specific images in chapter 2. Map by Ryan Larum.

2

NATURE REVEALED

While New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation, its coasts can be surprisingly natural. At one extreme are the heavily urbanized portions of northern Barnegat Bay, with only pockets of natural habitats remaining. This urbanization is most obvious along the barrier islands and less so on the mainland at the water’s edge. At the other extreme is Island Beach State Park, in the middle section of Barnegat Bay, which remains largely the same as before European settlement, except for the hordes of day-trippers who crowd the ocean beaches during the summer. The degree of urbanization is reduced to the south with the occasional expansions at Atlantic City, Ocean City, and Wildwood. This pattern is well correlated with the extent of salt marsh, with increasing amounts from southern Barnegat Bay southward. Along this stretch the coast is broken up by inlets, lagoonal estuaries such as Barnegat Bay, and ancient drowned river valleys such as the Mullica River–Great Bay and the Great Egg Harbor River estuaries. Throughout the region, geological remnants of the postglacial period are evident.

The photographs in this chapter reveal the natural components of the coastal landscape with many of the images coming from the Mullica River–Great Bay estuary. This estuary remains relatively undisturbed and is one of the cleanest estuaries along the East Coast of the United States. Another factor responsible for the large number of images from this estuary is that it is home to the extensive research and monitoring facilities of the Rutgers University Marine Field Station and other institutions. The chapter progresses from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, where the water is the saltiest, into estuaries, until eventually reaching the head of the tide in fresh