Environmental signal shredding on sandy coastlines

Eli D. Lazarus, Mitchell D. Harley, Chris E. Blenkinsopp, Ian L. Turner

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Abstract

How storm events contribute to long-term shoreline change over decades to centuries remains an open question in coastal research. Sand and gravel coasts exhibit remarkable resilience to event-driven disturbances, and, in settings where sea level is rising, shorelines retain almost no detailed information about their own past positions. Here, we use a high-frequency, multi-decadal observational record of shoreline position to demonstrate quantitative indications of morphodynamic turbulence - "signal shredding" - in a sandy beach system. We find that, much as in other dynamic sedimentary systems, processes of sediment transport that affect shoreline position at relatively short timescales may obscure or erase evidence of external forcing. This suggests that the physical effects of annual (or intra-annual) forcing events, including major storms, may convey less about the dynamics of long-term shoreline change - and vice versa - than coastal researchers might wish.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)77-86
Number of pages10
JournalEarth Surface Dynamics
Volume7
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jan 2019

Funding

Acknowledgements. Eli D. Lazarus thanks Andrew Ashton and Dylan McNamara for discussions about signal shredding in shoreline data, dating back to the publication of Jerol-mack and Paola (2010). This work was supported by funding (to Eli D. Lazarus) from the NERC BLUEcoast project (NE/N015665/2) and a University of Southampton Global Partnerships Award. Since 2004, the ongoing beach monitoring program at Narrabeen–Collaroy has been funded by the Australian Research Council (Discovery and Linkage), Warringah and Northern Beaches Councils, the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), the SIMS foundation, and the UNSW Faculty of Engineering (see Turner et al., 2016). We are grateful to Katherine Ratliff, Andrew Ashton, and an anonymous reviewer for constructive comments that improved the paper.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geophysics
  • Earth-Surface Processes

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