Beach Loss

A volumetric loss of sand from the active beach.

Glossary of Terms

Narrow, roughly shore-normal structure built to reduce longshore currents, and/or to trap and retain littoral material. Most groins are of rock and extend from the backshore, well onto the foreshore and rarely even further offshore.

El Niño

Warm equatorial water which flows southward along the coast of Peru and Ecuador during February and March of certain years. It is caused by poleward motions of air and unusual water temperature patterns in the Pacific Ocean , which cause coastal downwelling, leading to the reversal in the normal north-flowing cold coastal currents. During many El Niño years, storms, rainfall, and other meteorological phenomena in the Western Hemisphere are measurably different than during non- El Niño years.

A warm current that usually appears around Christmas off the coast of Ecuador and Peru . It is often used to refer to episodic (3-5 year) events when the current is particularly intense and dominates the local population of organisms (the abundance of fish in particular). Such events lead to wider regional or global ocean-atmospheric perturbations whose manifestations range from increased sea surface temperatures in the tropical East Pacific to aberrant rainfall patterns. (see also ENSO ).

Breakwater

A man-made structure protecting a shore area, harbor, anchorage, or basin from waves.

Monitoring

Periodic collection of data to study changes in an environment over time.

BOD

Biochemical (or Biological) Oxygen Demand - high figures suggest pollution or eutrophication.

Sea

A large body of salt water, second in rank to an ocean, more or less landlocked and generally part of, or connected with, an ocean or a larger sea. Examples: Mediterranean Sea; South China Sea.

Waves caused by wind at the place and time of observation.
State of the ocean surface, in regard to waves.

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Beach Loss