This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0309133309350120v1 33/6/733    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Houser, C. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Synchronization of transport and supply in beach-dune interaction

Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3147, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chouser{at}geog.tamu.edu.

	Abstract

This review considers the role of nearshore processes and morphological change as a flexible and dynamic constraint on the supply and transport of sediment between beach and dune. It is argued that the lack of information in this regard remains a central barrier to the development of a theory of beach-dune interaction that can be translated across scales and between field sites. Existing beach-dune models do not consider how and when sediment gets transferred to the backshore where it becomes available for transport by wind. Rather, existing models largely ascribe regional variations in dune morphology to fixed constraints on beach slope and sediment budget, without explicit recognition of processes involved. Recent (process-scale) transport studies have shown that the transfer of sediment is both spatially variable and temporally intermittent as a result of transport limitations across the beachface. While these studies have identified varied controls on sediment transport and exchange, there remains a limited capacity to predict the evolution of beach-dune systems, largely because the beachface tends to be viewed as a static transport surface without regard to supply or to the changing limits to transport. Following storm erosion, dune recovery first requires that the beach recovers through the onshore migration and welding of nearshore bars, followed by accretion in the backshore to create a supply of sediment for transport by the wind. The dependence of dune recovery on the synchronization of transport events with the recovery of sediment supply in the backshore creates a strong asymmetry in dune recovery that makes barrier island susceptible to widespread erosion and breaching if a change in the frequency or grouping of storm events is capable of resetting the bar system (offshore) before the next extreme storm.

First published on October 12, 2009, doi:10.1177/0309133309350120

Progress in Physical Geography 2009;33:733.

A more recent version of this article appeared on December 1, 2009


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?