Peat core analysis of barrier island and mainland marsh environments has the potential to show the detailed evolution and timing of event history of paleo-environments. Through microfossil assemblage, sediment analysis and 210Pb/ 14C dating techniques, origin and the temporal evolution of modern day geologically active barrier islands can be constrained. Additionally, sediment-starved barrier islands, such as Dauphin Island, Alabama, contain paleo-storm deposits which hold evidence for recent sequences with up-section variation of organic matter input that changes erodability rates during progressive island inundation. The peats and sand-sediment layers deposited in paleo-storm deposits typically archive a more complete history of island evolution than the beach front sands which are prone to rapid longshore current erosion. Furthermore, the coupling of microfossil and sedimentary studies have shown the power these data possess to refine the depositional history and reconstruct evolution of barrier island systems. Dauphin Island and adjacent estuarine marshes are ideal field locations with peat records reaching hundreds up to two thousand years back in the Holocene. Shallow geophysical tools like ground penetrating radar and a series of sediment cores of up to two meters depth across the island will help creating a detailed stratigraphic model. This project will be a chronologic study of peat and detrital units to be done combining Dauphin Island and adjacent marsh systems. The coastal sedimentary archives will contribute new insights into structural evolution of Dauphin Island and sea level rise in the Gulf of Mexico, offer statistical constraints on hurricane frequency and prediction.