Abstract
To retain recreational uses and shoreline protection, a large proportion of ocean beaches have been, and continue to be, nourished. Adding sand from subtidal and terrestrial sources to nourish beaches rarely re-creates the original sediment structure of the beach. Numerous studies have demonstrated that meiofaunal communities are altered by changes in sediment composition in low-energy substrates, therefore, we have explored whether beach nourishment has affected exposed, ocean beach meiofaunal communities. Since the early 2000s, we have conducted a series of sampling and experimental studies on meiofauna and sediments on nourished beaches in coastal North Carolina USA that had been sampled previously in the early 1970s, prior to any beach nourishment. Most of our studies consider meiofauna at the level of major taxa only. However, a few studies examine free-living flatworm (turbellarian) species in detail because of the existence of historical studies examining this group. Comparison of contemporary results to historical data and of heavily nourished versus lightly nourished beaches reveals extensive changes to beach sediment structure and meiofaunal community composition, indicating that the beaches are a more heterogeneous habitat than in the past. The effects of these substantial physical and biological changes to the production of beach ecosystem services are unlikely to be inconsequential.
Highlights
Beach nourishment has served as a popular mitigation practice globally, and especially along the United States Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, to counter beach erosion [1]
We report on a collection of studies conducted independently over an interval of ~14 years, all of which were constrained by the goal of providing insight into whether exposed beach sediments and the associated meiofaunal assemblages differ depending on time or location within a barrier island
Given the occurrence of spatial and temporal variation associated with the distribution of meiofauna, we recognize the limitations associated with comparing contemporary results to those from a very limited number of historical studies
Summary
Beach nourishment has served as a popular mitigation practice globally, and especially along the United States Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, to counter beach erosion [1]. This practice, which involves placing sediment (the fill) dredged or mined from other locations onto or near eroded beaches, has been viewed as having several benefits [2]. It avoids unwanted but unavoidable consequences of hardening exposed shorelines [3]. Some argue that it creates a habitat for beach fauna and flora that depend on the presence of sediments along sandy shorelines [5,6]. The use of nourishment is being questioned recently for economic and risk-related issues [7,8,9], the first two benefits often hold true, but the last has been and is highly controversial
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