Brazilian Sandy Beaches

More than 4000 beaches distributed along the Brazilian coastline are one of the country's main assets. They harbor endemic and diverse biota and provide numerous goods and services essential to human populations. However, they are under increasing pressure, trapped between the impacts of climate change and human activities in the terrestrial and marine environment, and the knowledge about their environmental characteristics and biodiversity is still insufficient to ensure their preservation. This book is the first-ever comprehensive work about Brazil's sandy beaches addressing their physical, ecological, and social aspects. It was written by an interdisciplinary group of leading Brazilian researchers from different regions of the country and also had the contribution of a few international experts. The information synthesized in this book is accessible to anyone who wants to know more about Brazilian coastal biodiversity and represents a significant step towards conserving Brazilian sandy beaches, their biodiversity, and ecosystem services.

This book is about the more than 4,000 beach systems that form most of the 9000 km long Brazilian coast. It focuses on the beaches of each of the seventeen coastal states and three oceanic islands, their nature, morphodynamics and status. It is a must for anyone who wants to know more about this great coast and its beach systems. This is the first book ever written about the beach systems of Brazil, and actually the very first about the beaches of an entire country. The Brazilian coast extends from the mighty Amazon River and its muddy shores in the north to one of the world’s longest sandy beaches in the southern Rio Grande do Sul. It contains every beach type from wave to tide-dominated which range in size from small embayed beaches to long barrier beaches. The book is written by leading Brazilian academics and researchers and aims at the university level market, as well as coastal scientists, engineers and managers. Standard scientific terminology is used to describe the coast and its beaches. It is illustrated with more than 400 original figures and serves as a benchmark text on the Brazilian coast.

Sandy beaches are the most abundant coastal environments worldwide, which have an undeniable and unique ecological value. Presently, they are amongst the most endangered ecosystems in the biosphere, mainly due to the influence of several human activities. In this book, renowned scientists from around the world describe key attributes of sandy beaches and highlight the problems which impact them. Specific tools encompassing the physical environment and the biota are pointed out, at different levels of ecological organization. The book also covers suitable management, conservation programmes and respective actions, where ecologic, economic and social dimensions are comprehensively integrated.

What sight is more beautiful than a high-energy beach facing lines of rolling white breakers? What battleground is more ferocious than where waves and sand meet? What environment could be more exciting to study than this sandy interface between sea and land? And yet how much do we know about sandy beaches? Open sandy beaches are amongst the most neglected fields of scientific study in the coastal environment. This situation exists despite their great extent along most temperate and tropical coastlines and their value as recreational areas and buffer zones against the sea. The traditional oceanographer does not venture into the surf zone while the terrestrial ecologist stops short at the high water mark. Only a few coastal engineers have grappled with the problem of sand and sediment movement as it influences their construction of harbours and pipelines. The marine biologist on the other hand has regarded estuaries, coral reefs and rocky shores, obviously teeming with life, as more fruitful areas for study than the apparently poor animal life on sandy beaches. Sandy beaches have therefore tended to become a scientific no man's land. Over the last decade this situation has begun to improve. Recent work on high-energy beaches has revealed that they may in fact be rich and productive and fertile areas for study. It has even been suggested that beaches and their adjacent surf zones may constitute viable marine ecosystems.

This book presents the main drivers of benthic structure and processes in estuaries from the 8,000 km-Brazilian coast, assesses the influence of natural and human disturbance, and discusses their ecological importance and management needs. Estuaries are unique coastal ecosystems often with low biodiversity that sustain and provide essential ecological services to mankind. These ecosystems include a variety of habitats with their own sediment and fauna dynamics, all of them globally altered or threatened by human activities. Mangroves, saltmarshes, tidal flats and other confined estuarine systems are under increasing stress by overfishing and other human activities leading to habitat and species loss. Combined changes in estuarine hydromorphology and in climate pose severe threats to estuarine ecosystems at a global scale.

Sandy beaches represent some of the most dynamic environments on Earth and examining their morphodynamic behaviour over different temporal and spatial scales is challenging, relying on multidisciplinary approaches and techniques. Sandy Beach Morphodynamics brings together the latest research on beach systems and their morphodynamics and the ways in which they are studied in 29 chapters that review the full spectrum of beach morphodynamics. The chapters are written by leading experts in the field and provide introductory level understanding of physical processes and resulting landforms, along with more advanced discussions. Includes chapters that are written by the world’s leading experts, including the latest up-to-date thinking on a variety of subject areas Covers state-of-the-art techniques, bringing the reader the latest technologies/methods being used to understand beach systems Presents a clear-and-concise description of processes and techniques that enables a clear understanding of coastal processes