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Abstract

Beaches are highly variable environments and respond to changes in wave forcing, themselves modulated by climate variability. Here, we analyze three high‐quality beach profile data sets to robustly investigate, for the first time, the link between shoreline change, wave forcing and climate variability along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Winter wave conditions are strongly associated with North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Western Europe Pressure Anomaly (WEPA), with WEPA explaining 50%–80% of the winter wave power variability. Shoreline variability during winter is also strongly linked to NAO and WEPA, with WEPA explaining 25% of the winter shoreline variability. Winter wave conditions and associated shoreline variability are both unrelated to El Nino Southern Oscillation. In addition to the atmospherically‐forced beach morphological response, shoreline change also depends strongly on the antecedent morphology as evidenced by significant correlations between summer/winter shoreline response and the shoreline position at the start of each season.

Publication Date

2023-11-28

Publication Title

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume

50

Issue

22

ISSN

0094-8276

Acceptance Date

2023-11-03

Deposit Date

2024-01-31

Embargo Period

2024-02-01

Funding

Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/M004996/1 Agence Nationale de la Recherche. Grant Number: ANR-21-CE01-0015 CMAR Making Space for Sand Project Cornwall Council The University of Plymouth Observatoire de la Côte Aquitaine Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers

Keywords

beaches, atmospheric indices, shoreline variability, storms

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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