Latest Coastal geography Stories
U.S. beach goers who play in the sand are at greater risk of diarrhea and gastrointestinal diseases than those who just walk on sand, scientists said. Beach sand can contain indicators of fecal contamination, said Chris Heaney, a postdoctoral epidemiology student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Heaney's study showed children run the greatest risk of illness after a day at the beach because they are more likely than adults to dig enthusiastically and get sand in their mouth,...
Expansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, which was the reason they moved to the coastal zone instead of bringing growing welfare to the inhabitants. Many Megacities such as Tokyo (pop. 36.000.000), New York (22.000.000) and London (12.000.000) are found in the coastal zone. Coastal protection measures give a sense of false security and require increasingly expensive infrastructure.The treatment and cure of these coastal syndromes includes...
Reductions in the flow of the Apalachicola River have far-reaching effects that could prove detrimental to grouper and other reef fish populations in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, according to a new Florida State University study that may provide new ammunition for states engaged in a nearly two-decade water war.The Florida State researchers found that in years with low river flow, the concentration of phytoplankton -- the microscopic plant-like organisms that feed into the food chain --...
AZTI-Tecnalia, the Basque technological centre specialising in marine and food research, has developed a system for monitoring the coast in order to observe and monitor maritime processes along our coastline. This is innovative technology for the sustainable management of the coast, involving the installation of a series of cameras located at strategic points along the littoral and which photograph the coastline in a programmed and periodic manner. This system, known as "˜Kostasystem', is...
"Anybody who observes waves can see that they are not the same height in winter and summer, but rather that their height varies over time, and we have applied a 'non- seasonal' statistical model in order to measure extreme events such as these", Fernando J. Méndez, an engineer at the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics at the University of Cantabria and co-author of a study published recently in the journal Coastal Engineering, tells SINC.The new model can chart the pattern of...
The British Marine Conservation Society said in its annual Good Beach Guide that only about half of the country's beaches are fit for swimming this year. The society said it performed water quality tests at 777 British beaches and determined only 370 were recommended for swimming, a decline of 17 percent from last year, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday. The figure represented the largest single-year drop since the start of the Goof Beach Guide 22 years ago and the lowest number of...
A U.N. deadline on May 13th over maritime boundaries will attempt to solve disputes over the seabed from the South China Sea to the North Pole, Reuters reported.A U.N. Commission that aims to set limits for national rights to everything from oil and gas to life on the ocean floor is asking most coastal states to define their continental shelves (areas of shallower water offshore) by Wednesday.Harald Brekke, a Norwegian official who is a vice-chair of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the...
Sediments released by many of the world's largest river deltas to the global oceans have been changed drastically in the last 50 years, largely as a result of human activity, says a Texas A&M University researcher who emphasizes that the historical information that can be gathered from sediment cores collected in and around these large deltaic regions is critical for a better understanding of environmental changes in the 21st century.Thomas Bianchi, a professor in the Department of...
Climate change is now threatening France's Aquitaine coast, which stretches north from the Spanish border to the Gironde River, causing erosion that is endangering coastal communities. In 2006 the European LIFE program identified 13 coastal communities as hotspots for erosion."There is a lack of sand on the beaches, because of a period of warming -- climate change," says Cyril Mallet, of the French geology and mining research agency BRGM.Climate change means more erosion for the...
The discovery of banned chemicals in oysters in a river running through St. Johns County, Fla., is a concern, an official says. Michael Shirley, Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve director, said polybrominated diphenyl ether, a fire-retardant chemical, was found in the Matanzas River oysters, the (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union said Monday. It's a concern, but it's not something that's a panic situation, Shirley said. A federal research study released this month...
Latest Coastal geography Reference Libraries
Coral reefs are submerged structures consisting of calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of small animals found in marine waters that enclose few nutrients. The majority of coral reefs are constructed from stony corals, which then consist of polyps that come together in groups. The polyps are like small sea anemones, to which they are very closely related. Unlike the sea anemones, coral polyps secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which provide support and protections...
Mudflats, or otherwise known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is left behind by tides or rivers. They’re found in sheltered regions such as bayous, lagoons, estuaries, and bays. Mudflats might be seen geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, a result from the deposition of estuarine silts, marine animal detritus, and clays. The majority of the sediment in a mudflat is within the intertidal zone, therefore the flat is submerged and exposed about twice per day. In...
A salt marsh, also otherwise known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone that lies between the land and the open salt water or brackish water that is routinely flooded by the tides. It’s dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants, for example, herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants originate from all around the globe and are important to the stability of the salt marsh in trapping and binding sediments. Salt marshes...
Image Credit: Meteorologist Joshua Kelly When meteorologists are forecasting for ocean-going vessels, there are a few terms that we need to understand. The first term is wavelength. Wavelength is defined as the distance between two crests or between two troughs as seen in the image above. The example above highlights the crest to crest concept of wavelength. The next term that we use is wave height, and to determine this, we first must look at the wave when it passes our station. When...
![Marine Life of California\](/media/gallery/national-science-foundation-gallery/thumbs/thumbs_17ane7453_h.jpg "Marine Life of California\")
