TY - JOUR
T1 - Foredune morphodynamics and sediment budgets at seasonal to decadal scales
T2 - Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, California, USA
AU - Rader, Alana M.
AU - Pickart, Andrea J.
AU - Walker, Ian
AU - Hesp, Patrick A.
AU - Bauer, Bernard O.
N1 - Funding Information:
Alana Rader would like to thank the University of Victoria and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge for financial and logistical support for this project. Thanks are also extended to the Rutgers Coastal Climate Risk and Resiliency (C2R2) traineeship program for support during revision stages. Further acknowledgements to Michael Grilliot and Derek Heathfield for support in field data collection and processing. Ian Walker acknowledges research support funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada's Discovery Grant program (award no. 239751-2011 ), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leader's Opportunity Fund (projects # 4632 and # 29502 ) and for partnerships with the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Friends of the Dunes. Patrick Hesp acknowledges Louisiana State University and Flinders University for support. Andrea Pickart and Patrick Hesp thank the USFWS Region 8 Inventory and Monitoring Program (award no. # F11PX02819 and # F14PX02390 ) and the Arcata Fish and Wildlife Office Coastal Program for funding and/or support in establishment and monitoring of beach dune transects reported in this study.
PY - 2018/10/1
Y1 - 2018/10/1
N2 - Coastal foredunes are shore-parallel ridges that form in the backshore and their morphodynamics are controlled partly by seasonal and spatial variations in the coastal (onshore) sediment budget that, in turn, are driven by oceanic and atmospheric processes and interactions, including regional wave and wind regimes, climatic variability events (e.g., ENSO), sediment availability, beach characteristics (e.g., width, slope), and vegetation type and cover in the backshore. Previous studies on shoreline change in Northern California report only broad rates of erosion and accretion related to regional meteorological regimes. This study presents a more detailed, multi-decadal to seasonal account of shoreline response and foredune morphodynamics along a 2.5 km stretch of coast in the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge (HBNWR). Analysis of historical aerial photography (1939–2014) reveals trends in shoreline position that are coupled with more detailed assessments of foredune morphodynamics and seasonal scale volumetric changes from cross-shore topographic profiles``. These findings set the historical context of foredune morphodynamics and allow exploration of the implications of seasonal meteorological variation on long-term (75-year) foredune evolution and development at the HBNWR. DSAS describes maximum foredune progradation in the north (up to +0.51 m a−1) and maximum foredune retreat in the south (up to −0.49 m a−1). Aerial photograph analysis (2004–2014) shows statistically significant larger erosive features in the southern zone than in the northern and central zones. Seasonal volume calculations from cross-shore profiles indicate statistically significant differences in alongshore transect elevation and foredune volume, with larger elevations and volumes in the northern and central zones than in the southern. Combined with evidence of seasonal bidirectional littoral drift, these data support a north to south gradient in sediment availability, foredune position and resulting stages of established foredune development. Seasonal storm energies and climate forcing events introduce variability in erosive patterns but support the persistence of alongshore developmental stages. Future research should explore foredune morphodynamics on a smaller spatial scale and changes related to the presence/absence of multiple vegetation assemblages.
AB - Coastal foredunes are shore-parallel ridges that form in the backshore and their morphodynamics are controlled partly by seasonal and spatial variations in the coastal (onshore) sediment budget that, in turn, are driven by oceanic and atmospheric processes and interactions, including regional wave and wind regimes, climatic variability events (e.g., ENSO), sediment availability, beach characteristics (e.g., width, slope), and vegetation type and cover in the backshore. Previous studies on shoreline change in Northern California report only broad rates of erosion and accretion related to regional meteorological regimes. This study presents a more detailed, multi-decadal to seasonal account of shoreline response and foredune morphodynamics along a 2.5 km stretch of coast in the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge (HBNWR). Analysis of historical aerial photography (1939–2014) reveals trends in shoreline position that are coupled with more detailed assessments of foredune morphodynamics and seasonal scale volumetric changes from cross-shore topographic profiles``. These findings set the historical context of foredune morphodynamics and allow exploration of the implications of seasonal meteorological variation on long-term (75-year) foredune evolution and development at the HBNWR. DSAS describes maximum foredune progradation in the north (up to +0.51 m a−1) and maximum foredune retreat in the south (up to −0.49 m a−1). Aerial photograph analysis (2004–2014) shows statistically significant larger erosive features in the southern zone than in the northern and central zones. Seasonal volume calculations from cross-shore profiles indicate statistically significant differences in alongshore transect elevation and foredune volume, with larger elevations and volumes in the northern and central zones than in the southern. Combined with evidence of seasonal bidirectional littoral drift, these data support a north to south gradient in sediment availability, foredune position and resulting stages of established foredune development. Seasonal storm energies and climate forcing events introduce variability in erosive patterns but support the persistence of alongshore developmental stages. Future research should explore foredune morphodynamics on a smaller spatial scale and changes related to the presence/absence of multiple vegetation assemblages.
KW - Aeolian
KW - Coastal erosion
KW - Foredune
KW - Shoreline change
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U2 - 10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.06.003
DO - 10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.06.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85048558573
VL - 318
SP - 69
EP - 87
JO - Geomorphology
JF - Geomorphology
SN - 0169-555X
ER -