Meiobenthic diversity in space and time: The case of harpacticoid copepods in two Mediterranean microtidal sandy beaches

Meiobenthic data from two microtidal sandy beaches of the eastern Mediterranean (Crete, Greece) were used to investigate patterns of both alpha and beta diversity in space and time. Copepod assemblages and environmental variables related to sediment characteristics, morphodynamics and food were studied over a year at four distinct habitats at each beach; the retention, resurgence and saturation zones of Salvat's intertidal scheme (midlittoral zone), and the surf zone of the sublittoral. Αlpha diversity analysis indicated similar species richness at both beaches when the whole 13-month data set was considered but was higher at the sheltered site when each sampling period was examined separately. Both beaches supported higher diversity in the sublittoral zone. Species richness increased seawards at the midlittoral zone of the sheltered site whereas, no pattern was evident at the exposed site, where the intense hydrodynamic conditions homogenized the sediments. Beta diversity increased markedly towards the sublittoral, indicating greater differences in alpha diversity between the sublittoral and the midlittoral zone. Species turnover was more variable at the exposed beach and at the most landward stations, where environmental conditions change often between extremes. A proportion of the variation in alpha diversity was explained by food availability at both beaches and additionally by grain size at the sheltered site. However, no environmental variable explained beta diversity patterns. Although the results of our study support the hypothesis of Multicausal Environmental Severity proposed for sandy beach macrofauna, we believe the classic Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis is a more appropriate framework for the meiofauna communities of the studied sites.     

Morphodynamics of structurally controlled headland-bay beaches in southeastern Brazil: A review

This paper presents a comprehensive review on the interaction between hydrodynamic processes, beach morphology and sedimentology at large scale coastal behaviour along the coastline of Santa Catarina, between Laguna and São Francisco Island, a microtidal east coast swell environment with headland and bay geomorphologies. The parabolic bay shape equation has proven to be a convenient and practical tool for studying the stability of the headland-bay beaches, tombolos, and salients in Santa Catarina. The beaches exhibit different patterns of sediment removal as a function of the degree of beach curvature. In highly curved beaches, there is a well-developed shadow zone and a range of morphodynamic conditions, from a sheltered low-energy beach adjacent to the downdrift headland to a high-energy exposed beach on the straight end of the headland-bay beach. The less curved beaches instead, tend to show more uniform behaviour since they are directly exposed to incident waves. There is no obvious relationship between average wave height and mean grain size, showing the importance of sediment source to characterize the sedimentary distribution patterns in the study area. The analysis of beaches showed that beach morphodynamics and sequence profiles for a bay–headland coast in a microtidal east coast environment is a function of geological inheritance (e.g., distance between headlands and orientation, nearshore and inner shelf morphology, coastal plain morphology, and sediment source), and hydrodynamic factors (wave conditions, oceanic wave exposure and relative tidal range).     

深圳龙岐湾海滩资源调查与开发建议

文章基于2022年春、秋季开展的龙岐湾沙滩资源调查数据,分析较场尾沙滩、大塘角沙滩、黄泥湾沙滩和桔钓沙沙滩的剖面特征、沉积物粒径和裂流发生情况。研究结果表明：4处沙滩剖面的坡度秋缓春陡,剖面受风浪和潮汐直接作用时坡度变化大,受遮蔽时坡度变化小,整体呈冬春淤积、夏秋侵蚀;沙滩沉积物以中砂、粗砂和砾石为主,粒径变化不大;沙滩均无明显裂流发生,为低风险等级。建议开发沙滩旅游应考虑季节性的补沙方案,开展围垦养殖和海岸工程应注意削弱ESE向和SE向的波浪作用。     

华南砂质海滩的动力地貌分析

为探讨华南砂质海滩的动力地貌学特征,对不同地理岸段不同地貌形态的8 个沙滩剖面于冬、夏季进行现场重复调查和室内分析工作.据此,通过对华南海岸带地质构造、地貌和现代海岸动力环境地域变化的分析,将华南沿海砂质海岸划分为岬湾岸、沙坝-潟湖岸和夷直岸三种基本海岸地貌类型,并且从滩面倾向、海岸动力环境影响、季节冲淤变化趋势和滩面沉积物粒径、坡度的动力响应等方面探讨砂质海滩的动力地貌,得出其受制于多种环境因素的影响,其中地质构造背景和海平面变化为大尺度的砂质海岸地貌的发育奠定了基础,而全新世海侵海平面相对稳定后,海岸动力条件的塑造起着决定性的影响,浪潮作用指数是其中重要的影响指标.     

Mapping beach morphodynamics remotely: A novel application tested on South African sandy shores

Sandy beaches have been identified as threatened ecosystems but despite the need to conserve them, they have been generally overlooked. Systematic conservation planning (SCP) has emerged as an efficient method of selecting areas for conservation priority. However, SCP analyses require digital shapefiles of habitat and species diversity. Mapping these attributes for beaches from field data can take years and requires exhaustive resources. This study thus sought to derive a methodology to classify and map beach morphodynamic types from satellite imagery. Since beach morphodynamics is a strong predictor of macrofauna diversity, they could be considered a good surrogate for mapping beach biodiversity. A dataset was generated for 45 microtidal beaches (of known morphodynamic type) by measuring or coding for several physical characteristics from imagery acquired from Google Earth. Conditional inference trees revealed beach width to be the only factor that significantly predicted beach morphodynamic type, giving four categories: dissipative, dissipative-intermediate, intermediate and reflective. The derived model was tested by using it to predict the morphodynamic type of 28 other beaches of known classification. Model performance was good (75% prediction accuracy) but misclassifications occurred at the three breaks between the four categories. For beaches around these breaks, consideration of surf zone characteristics in addition to beach width ameliorated the misclassifications. The final methodology yielded a 93% prediction accuracy of beach morphodynamic type. Overlaying other considerations on this classification scheme could provide additional value to the layer, such that it also describes species’ spatial patterns. These could include: biogeographic regions, estuarine versus sandy beaches and short versus long beaches. The classification scheme was applied to the South African shoreline as a case study. The distribution of the beach morphodynamic types was partly influenced by geography. Most of the long, dissipative beaches are found along the west coast of the country, the south coast beaches are mostly dissipative-intermediate, and the east coast beaches range from short, estuarine pocket and embayed beaches in the former Transkei (south east), to longer intermediate and reflective beaches in KwaZulu-Natal (in the north east). Once combined with the three biogeographic regions, and distinguishing between estuarine and sandy shores, the South African coast comprised 24 different beach types. Representing shorelines in this form opens up potential for numerous spatial analyses that can not only further our understanding of sandy beach ecology at large spatial scales but also aid in deriving conservation strategies for this threatened ecosystem.     

Distribution patterns of interstitial polychaetes in sandy beaches of southern Brazil

This study describes the distribution patterns of interstitial polychaetes along morphodynamic gradients on six exposed sandy beaches in Santa Catarina and Paraná (South Brazil). Three random transects were sampled at two points on each beach, one at the swash and another at the surf zone, in winter and summer conditions. Six sediment replicates were collected at each sampling point using a corer of 4.6 cm internal diameter that removed 10 cm into the sediment. Abundance and composition of interstitial polychaete were correlated to wave height, slope, grain size, CaCO₃, chlorophyll a , omega indexes, temperature and relative tide range using a canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). A factorial ANOVA showed that taxa richness, mean density and Shannon's diversity were significantly higher at the reflective beaches, but average values differ significantly between transects and these differences change according to the beach zones on both sampling dates. PERMANOVA showed that polychaete associations differ among transects according to the beach zones. The composition of interstitial polychaete associations was significantly correlated to beach morphodynamics and features (P < 0.01). Polychaete associations of reflective beaches were more diverse than in other morphodynamic states. Intermediate beaches may also sustain diverse associations due to temporal variability of the morphodynamic patterns. Beaches presenting extreme dissipative morphodynamics and compacted sediments appear to be unfavourable for the occurrence of interstitial polychaetes.     

海南万宁岬湾海岸海滩稳定性研究

岬湾海岸海滩的稳定性及其演变是砂质海岸研究的重要内容。基于多期遥感影像、海滩沉积物粒度分布,并采用岬湾海滩平衡形态模型(MEPBAY),分析探讨了海南岛东部万宁4个典型岬湾海岸海滩的稳定性及其模型的应用。研究表明,除东澳湾凸角处于不稳定状态,其余海岸处于静态或准静态平衡状态;岬湾海滩沉积物粒度在遮蔽段和开敞段有明显的差异,相邻海滩之间没有明显的泥沙交换,每个岬湾海滩都是相对独立的地貌单元;模型中上岬角控制点选取应考虑岛礁及水下礁坪;抛物线模型可以拓展应用于有离岸岛情况下的海湾。研究成果可为岬湾海滩的稳定性评估和管理提供科学依据。     

Exposed sandy beaches as semi-closed ecosystems

On the basis of various lines of evidence, mostly coming from exposed sandy beaches in Southern Africa, it is postulated that under certain conditions high energy sandy beaches and their adjacent surf zones may function as viable ecosystems. Where surf zones are reasonably broad and shallow, cellular circulation patterns predominate and these tend to retain nutrients generated by the macrofauna and interstitial fauna of the beach. These nutrients may then cause blooms of surf zone phytoplankton which in turn serve as food for macrofauna filter feeders. With the perimeter of the circulation cells of the surf zone forming its marine boundary, the beach and surf zone may together be considered an ecosystem with surf phytoplankton the primary producers, beach macrofauna the consumers and interstitial fauna the decomposers.     

Structure and distribution of the benthic macrofauna on a Northwest African sandy beach close to a freshwater river discharge

The effects of the freshwater discharge of the Oued Sebou River on the macroinfauna, was studied on the sandy beach of Mehdia through the analysis of the abiotic parameters and of the macrozoobenthos. In autumn 2002 and spring 2003, three beach sites, each with two transects, localized at 50, 3500 and 5720 m from the river mouth respectively, were studied. Positive correlations were recorded for beach slope and pH whereas negative ones were obtained for organic matter content and salinity at increasing distances from the river mouth. Significant differences between beach sites and seasons occurred for median grain size, organic matter content and pH. For each beach site, mean macroinfauna abundance varied between 30 and 100 ind.·m⁻² and in spring there was a significant correlation between this parameter and the increasing distance from the river mouth. No significant correlation was instead found between species richness and the increasing distance, although the farthest beach site from the mouth had the highest number of species during both seasons. The results indicated the importance of organic matter content and salinity for the macrofaunal abundance whereas the diversity indices were more affected by beach slope and grain size. The results showed that there was no clear spatial trend in compound indices of the macrofauna across the sampled sites and the influence of the river discharge of Sebou River did not seem to be significant and consistent on the macrobenthos of this mesotidal shore. Comparison with microtidal shores revealed the influence of the tidal excursion and swell characteristics on the response of the benthic structures of sandy beaches to discharges of freshwater.     

汇泉湾水动力环境观测和数值模拟研究

汇泉湾是青岛市最主要的海水浴场,湾区浴场的沙滩沙质退化及细沙流失现象一直备受关注。本研究旨在研究上述现象的成因,为汇泉湾生态环境保护和可持续发展提供科技支持。我们于2015年1月和9月在汇泉湾进行了水文、泥沙和悬浮物的综合观测,并基于FVCOM建立了汇泉湾高分辨率的水动力模式,模拟了汇泉湾及其临近海域的水动力环境。结果显示:汇泉湾常年存在一顺时针(即反气旋)环流,它有利于携带泥沙从湾的西侧进入而从东侧流出;环流中心区流速弱,泥沙不容易被带走,沉积物粒径较小。汇泉湾海域沙滩沙质粗化且流失的原因主要为:波致流引起的沿岸输沙将湾口西侧岩石剥蚀的较粗的细砂和粉砂搬运至浴场沙滩,而较细的泥沙容易地从东侧流出湾区。     

2010—2020及影响因素分析年青岛海滩剖面稳定性

海滩的稳定性及其演变是砂质海滩研究的重要内容。在全球砂质海滩普遍遭受侵蚀的背景下,分析部分稳定海滩的特征和原因可以为海滩维护和科学管理提供重要参考。本文基于近 11 年 （2010—2020 年） 青岛第一、第三和石老人海水浴场共 8 条典型剖面的实地监测高程数据,对海滩滩肩宽度和单宽体积进行计算对比,研究表明,除石老人海水浴场一个剖面变化较大外,其他剖面的滩肩宽度只变化了 0~14 m,是 11 年前的 0%~23.3%;单宽体积变化了 8.5~46.5 m3,是 11 年前的1.0%~9.4%;海滩剖面垂向扰动范围一般在 30~60 cm 范围内。海滩存在局部小尺度淤积或侵蚀,剖面形态总体较为稳定。海平面变化、台风和风暴潮等自然因素是海岸轻微侵蚀或调整的重要影响因素,但对海滩的优化管理 （包括定期监测海滩、适度展开养护、制定完善的管理政策和加强执行力度等人为因素） 可以应对这些海滩变化,并且已成为近年来该研究海滩保持稳定的关键因素。     

Macrobenthic zonation patterns along a morphodynamical continuum of macrotidal,low tide bar/rip and ultra-dissipative sandy beaches

The species composition, densities, biomass and zonation patterns of the macrobenthos of sandy beaches are greatly influenced by the morphodynamics and morphology of the beaches. Macrobenthic zonation patterns along a small-scale morphodynamic gradient, comprising eight Belgian beach sites, were investigated. By taking into account the dimensionless fall velocity (Ω) and the relative tidal range, the beach sites were ordered along the gradient from the ultra-dissipative beach type (UD) to the low tide bar/rip beach type (LTBR). The resulting beach state index varied between 1.8 and 4.2 and the beach profiles were related with the beaches' morphodynamic state.In total 35 macrobenthic species, mainly polychaetes and crustaceans, were encountered, varying between 19 and 23 species per beach site. The species composition was quite similar among beach sites, with Scolelepis squamata being abundant at all eight sites. Furthermore, the macrobenthic distribution patterns were mainly related to elevation at all beach sites. Some remarkable difference in metrics, largely related to the beach morphodynamics and the consequent hydrodynamics, were found. At the hydrodynamically benign and consequently macrobenthos-rich UD beaches, the highest macrobenthic densities and biomass occurred on the upper beach, while at the hydrodynamically harsh and thus macrobenthos-poor LTBR beaches, the maximum densities and biomass occurred lower on the beach. Species, typically occurring on the upper UD beaches, such as Eurydice pulchra, S. squamata, and Bathyporeia sarsi, were restricted to the sub-optimal middle and lower beach zone at LTBR beaches. Only Bathyporeia pilosa was found on the upper beach of both UD and LTBR beaches. The more robust polychaete Ophelia rathkei and the interstitial polychaete Hesionides arenaria were exclusively found in the hydrodynamically harsh conditions of the middle LTBR beach zone.     

Physical determinants of intertidal communities on dissipative beaches: Implications of sea-level rise

Sea-level rise is likely to cause significant changes in the morphodynamic state of beaches in the higher latitudes, resulting in steeper beaches with larger particle sizes. These physical changes have implications for beach invertebrate communities, which are determined largely by sediment particle size, and hence for ecosystem function. Previous studies have explored the relationships between invertebrate communities and environmental variables such as particle size, beach slope and exposure to wave action, and often these physical variables can be integrated in various indices of morphodynamic state. Most of these studies incorporated a full range of beach types that included wave-dominated surf beaches, where the wave action is harsh enough to enable reliable estimates of breaker height, a parameter included in several of the indices, and concluded that more dissipative beaches with gentler slopes and finer particle sizes often support a higher number of species and greater abundance than more reflective beaches. Whether these predictions remain valid for less wave-dominated beaches, where breaker height is more difficult to determine, is uncertain. In the present study, the abundance of meio- and macrofauna was quantified across a range of beaches in the UK, which are generally towards the lower energy end of the morphodynamic gradient, and their relationships with beach physical properties explored. No significant relationships were found between abundance and the standard morphodynamic indices, but significant relationships were found for both macro- and meiofaunal abundance when these indices were combined with an exposure index (derived from velocity, direction, duration and the effective fetch). All the relationships identified between abundance and combined morphodynamic indices indicated a higher abundance of both macro- and meiofauna on the more dissipative beaches. The reverse was however found for species richness. If predictions that accelerated sea-level rise will move beaches towards a more reflective morphodynamic state are correct, this could lead to declines in the abundance of meio- and macrofauna, with potential adverse consequences for ecosystem functioning.     

Study on headland-bay sandy coast stability in South China coasts

Headland-bay beach equilibrium planform has been a crucial problem abroad to long-term sandy beach evolution and stabilization,extensively applied to forecast long-term coastal erosion evolvement and the influences of coastal engineering as well as long-term coastal management and protection.However,little concern focuses on this in China.The parabolic relationship is the most widely used empirical relationship for determining the static equilibrium shape of headland-bay beaches.This paper utilizes the relation to predict and classify 31 headland-bay beaches and concludes that these bays cannot achieve the ultimate static equilibrium planform in South China.The empirical bay equation can morphologically estimate beach stabilization state,but it is just a referential predictable means and is difficult to evaluate headland-bay shoreline movements in years and decades.By using Digital Shoreline Analysis System suggested by USGS,the rates of shoreline recession and accretion of these different headland-bay beaches are quantitatively calculated from 1990 to 2000.The conclusions of this paper include that (a) most of these 31 bays maintain relatively stable and the rates of erosion and accretion are relatively large with the impact of man-made constructions on estuarine within these bays from 1990 to 2000;(b) two bays,Haimen Bay and Hailingshan Bay,originally in the quasi-static equilibrium planform determined by the parabolic bay shape equation,have been unstable by the influence of coastal engineering;and (c) these 31 bays have different recession and accretion characters occurring in some bays and some segments.On the one hand,some bays totally exhibit accretion,but some bays show erosion on the whole.Shanwei Bay,Houmen Bay,Pinghai Bay and Yazhou Bay have the similar planforms,characterized by less accretion on the sheltering segment and bigger accretion on the transitional and tangential segments.On the other hand,different segments of some bays have two dissimilar evolvement characters.Dacheng Bay,Shenquan Bay,Hudong Bay,Wukan Bay,Fengjia Bay,Wuchang Bay,Lingshui Bay and Tufu Bay produce accretion on the tangential segment,erosion on the transitional segment and accretion on the sheltering segment.However,Guang’ao Bay,Haimen Bay,Jinghai Bay,Sanya Bay(a),Dajiao Bay,Hailingshan Bay,Hebei Bay,Fuhu Bay,Shuidong Bay,Wangcun Bay and Bomao Bay generate erosion on the tangential part,accretion on the transitional part and accretion on the sheltering part.It seems to imply some relations between headland-bay beach evolvement and controls on headland-bay beaches,which may possibly to classify headland-bay beach types and should be further studied.     

Application of the parabolic bay shape equation to sand and gravel beaches on Mediterranean coasts

The equation most commonly used to describe the bay planform was proposed by Hsu and Evans (1989) and it was obtained through empirical analysis of sand beach planforms.In the last decade interest in gravel sediments increased owing to their greater stability on beaches, compared with sand sediments. Due to the differences between the morphodynamics of sand and gravel beaches, which is strictly influenced by their different hydraulic characteristics, it was necessary to create a predictive instrument for this beach type as well.Therefore, in this study the standard Hsu and Evans equation (1989) was modified in order to make it applicable not only to sand beaches but also to gravel beaches. The shoreline was computed according to a parabolic model in polar coordinates whose coefficients are considered linearly dependent on the wave direction and related to the beach type. The estimation of the free parameters of the model was performed according to a statistical analysis of a shorelines data set of Mediterranean sand and gravel embayed beaches.     

The sandy beach macrofauna of Gulf of Gabès (Tunisia)

This study describes the macrofauna of the three beaches situated in central Gulf of Gabès (Tunisia): Ouderef, Gabès and Zarrat. The Gulf of Gabès has the largest tides in the Mediterranean and the beaches showed a wide intertidal zone. The beaches were sampled once during the spring low tides of June 2005. A transect was extended at each beach, from above the drift line to below the swash line at five sampled levels; at each level six 0.05 m² replicates were taken to a depth of 30 cm and sieved through a 1-mm mesh, and the organisms collected and preserved. The three beaches showed a different physical environment. Sediment type was medium sand at the steeper Ouderef beach, fine sands at Gàbes beach, and very fine sands at the flatter Zarrat beach. The total number of species collected was 31: 12 crustaceans, 10 polychaetes, four molluscs and five insects. The supralittoral and mediolittoral zones were very different. The supralittoral zone was dominated by Talitrus saltator and insects. The most abundant mediolittoral species were the amphipod crustacean Bathyporeia guilliamsoniana at Ouderef beach (23069 ind.m⁻¹), the surf clam Donax trunculus at Gabès beach (60711 ind.m⁻¹) and the spionid polychaete Scolelepis mesnili at Zarrat beach (18345.6 ind.m⁻¹).     

Role of geological inheritance in Australian beach morphodynamics

The Australian coast contains 10,685 beaches which occupy 49% of the 30,000 km coast and average 1.37 km in length. Their relatively short length is largely due to the presence of bedrock, calcarenite and laterite, which form boundaries to many of the beaches, as well as occurring as rocks, reefs and islands along and off the beaches. This geological inheritance plays a major role in Australian beach systems — determining their length and through wave refraction and attenuation influencing beach location, shape, type, morphodynamics and circulation, which in turn influence sediment transport and the backing dune and barrier systems. This paper uses a database covering every Australian beach to review the role of headlands, rocks and reefs on Australian beaches. Major effects are the short average beach length; reduction in breaker height resulting in lower energy beach types; wave refraction resulting in increased beach curvature; the presence of topographic rips on moderate and higher energy beaches and megarips during high wave conditions; and the interruption of and/or trapping of longshore sand transport leading to beach rotation.