The Science of the total environment
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Sci. Total Environ. · Oct 2012
The effects of beach nourishment on benthic invertebrates in eastern Australia: impacts and variable recovery.
Beach erosion is likely to accelerate, driven by predicted consequences of climate change and coastal development. Erosion is increasingly combated by beach nourishment, adding sand to eroding shores. Because a range of engineering techniques exists to nourish beaches, and because these techniques differ in their environmental effects, assessments of ecological impacts need to be tailored and specific. ⋯ These findings indicate that the height and position of sand placement are important. For example, rather than depositing fill sand on the intertidal beach, it could be placed in the shallow subtidal zone, followed by slow up-shore accretion driven by hydrodynamic forces. Alternatively, techniques that spread the fill sand in thin layers (to minimize mortality by burial) and leave unfilled intertidal refuge islands (to provide colonists) may minimize the ecological impacts of beach nourishment.