Other Projects

Headland bypassing and coastal sediment fluxes: Santa Catarina, Brazil

Overview: The vast majority of modern continental margins are fronted by rocky coasts, commonly characterized by small siliciclastic beaches segmented by headlands that alter both the rate and direction of longshore and cross-shore sediment movement. Through the mechanism of headland bypassing, sediment is either trapped along updrift beaches or transported around the headland to downdrift beaches. The resulting sedimentary landforms are complex, and may consist of pocket beaches, spits, and beach- and foredune-ridge plains. However, little is known about the sedimentology and internal geometric relationships of these landforms, how they differ from land formed through the uninterrupted supply of sand along open coasts, and the implications of the growth of an updrift sedimentary landforms on downdrift headland-bypassing sediment fluxes. In several locations along the central and northern Santa Catarina coast (southern Brazil), we are exploring the processes of headland bypassing, and the development of associated landforms through geochronologic reconstruction of associated complex, multi-spit and beach- and foredune-ridge systems.

The long-term effects of oil-spill beach washing on sediment organization: Prince William Sound, Alaska

Overview: Intense high-pressure washing of many beaches of western Prince William Sound following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill resulted in sediment reworking that disrupted clast organization on these generally coarse-grained (granule to boulder) beaches. These actions caused substantial long-term injury to hard-shell clam assemblages. We returned to these beaches in 2010, some 21 years later to study the progress in natural re-organization of clasts along these beaches, as well as any continued impacts of washing on the infaunal populations. We employed a first-of-its-kind photogrammetric approach that allowed us to provide three-dimensional, high-resolution analysis and quantification of coarse-clast organization on both oiled-and-washed (treated) and oiled-but-unwashed (untreated) beaches throughout the sound. We found that beaches disturbed by washing in 1989/90 that were exposed to more wave energy had recovered by 2010, whereas more protected beaches were still in a state of semi-disturbance 21 years after these beaches were washed. Furthermore, it appears that recovery at the more protected sites will require appreciably more time before these sites attain the ambient level of organization that was observed at the unwashed sites, where clam populations had recovered significantly more 13 years after the spill than the washed sites.

Publications

Please feel free to contact us for pdf copies of any of the following publications:

Wilson, F.L.G., Klein, A.H.F., Mahiques, M.M., Hein, C.J., de Sousa, L.A.P., Cooper, J.A.G., Green, A., 2023. Holocene barrier overstepping, estuarine rollover and drainage merging in a sub-tropical bay, Marine Geology, v. 462, p. 107076. doi: 10.1016/j.margeo.2023.107076

Hein, C.J., Pilarczyk, J.E., Brain, M., Green, A.N., Lau, A.Y.A., Ramos, N., 2023. From cores to code: Enhancing data-model integration to improve forecasts of coastal change – An introduction to IGCP Project 725, In: Coastal Sediments ’23, Proceedings of the 13^th International Symposium on Coastal Engineering and Science of Coastal Sediment Processes, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, p. 2340-2354, doi: 10.1142/9789811275135_0215.

Lees, D.C., Hein, C.J., FitzGerald, D.M. 2022. Measuring organization of large surficial clasts in heterogeneous gravel beach sediments. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, v. 10, p. 525, doi: 10.3390/jmse10040525.

Hein, C.J., *Shawler, J.L., De Camargo, J.M., Klein, A.H.F., Tenebruso, C., Fenster, M.S., 2019. The role of coastal sediment sinks in modifying longshore sand fluxes: Examples from the coasts of southern Brazil and the Mid-Atlantic USA, In: Coastal Sediments ’19, Proceedings of the 12^th International Symposium on Coastal Engineering and Science of Coastal Sediment Processes, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, p. 2330–2344.

Hein, C.J., Ten Hoeve, T.E., Gopalakrishnan, S., Livneh, B., Adams, H.D., Marino, E.K., Weiler, C.S., 2018, Overcoming early career barriers to interdisciplinary climate change research, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, doi:10.1002/wcc.530.

Lees, D.C., Hein, C.J., FitzGerald, D.M., Carruthers, E.A., 2013, Re-assessment of Bivalve Recovery on Washed Heterogeneous Beaches in Prince William Sound, EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Restoration Project Final Report, Restoration Project 10100574, 165 p.

Abstracts & Presentations

Please contact us for pdf copies of any of the following abstracts or their associated presentations or posters:

*Lott, S.G., Hein, C.J., Klein, A.H.d.F., Connell, J.E., de Oliveira, M.A.T., Pinto, M., Galvao, W., 2021. Centennial-scale coastal landform development associated with longshore transport and headland bypassing: São Francisco do Sul Island, Brazil, AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA, December 2021.

Hein, C.J., Lees, D.C., Carruthers, E.A., FitzGerald, D.M., 2012, Sediment organization in the heterogeneous, coarse-grained beaches of western Prince William Sound: Long-term effects of post-oil spill beach washing, Alaska Marine Sciences Symposium 2012, 16-20 January 2012, Anchorage, Alaska, USA.

Lees, D.C., Hein, C.J., Carruthers, E.A., 2012, Status of hard-shell clam assemblages in organized coarse-grained sediments in western Prince William Sound – A preliminary report, Alaska Marine Sciences Symposium 2012, 16-20 January 2012, Anchorage, Alaska.