![]() More frequent coastal storms, also associated with climate change, take a further toll on beaches by unleashing rough waves that eat away at the shore. ![]() ![]() With climate change, sea level has risen by about 8 inches (20 centimeters) since 1900, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and could rise 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) higher by the end of this century. The pattern of erosion that Ludka's team observed at ground level is what's alarming to researchers assessing the long-term future of U.S. "There is quite a bit of natural variability so it's hard to pick out trends," Ludka says, "but at our longest recorded site we did see an overall pattern of erosion." Among the team's more positive findings was that larger-grained sand appeared to have better staying power than finer-grained sand and, in some cases, the amount of sand deposited and removed from a beach by natural forces was higher than any mechanically added sand. At another beach, the addition of 138 Olympic swimming pools-worth of sand contributed to the clogging and eventual closure of a nearby estuary. Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Parks and Recreation, the National Science Foundation and California Sea Grant.Īmong their findings, the team learned that the entire amount of sand added to San Diego's Torrey Pines in 2001 was washed away during a single storm. The research received funding from the U.S. She and her colleagues used jet skis, ATVs and other tools to continuously monitor sand levels and sand movement at the beaches over a period of about 10 years. A study published by Ludka in the June 2018 issue of the journal Coastal Engineering, examines exactly what happened to sand deposited on four beaches in San Diego County in California.
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