Foreword by the Donor, The Santa Aguila Foundation
PART I: THE GLOBAL CHARACTER OF BEACHES
Nature’s Most Dynamic Environment
Comber’s Delight or Nature’s Trash Collector?
Classification of Coasts and Beaches
Classifications and a Global Model
Beach Sediments and the Plate Tectonic Setting
Sidebar: The World’s Longest Beach
Sidebar: Societal Classification of Beaches
3 Of What Are Beaches Made? Sediments
Sidebar: Terrigenous Beach Minerals
4 How Beaches Work: Waves, Currents, Tides, and Wind
The Most Dynamic Place on Earth
Currents (Longshore, Onshore, Offshore)
5 The Form of the Beach: Crab’s-Eye and Bird’s-Eye Views
Beach Profiles: The Crab’s-Eye View
Beach Plans: The Bird’s-Eye View
6 The Beach Surface Up Close: Imprints of Tides, Currents, and Waves
Nearshore, Beach, and Tidal-Flat Features
7 Escape from Within: Air and Water in the Beach
Knee-Deep in Sand: Airy Beaches
Watery Beaches and Water Escape Structures
8 Whichever Way the Wind Blows: Reworking the Beach Surface
Wet-to-Dry Transition Structures
Dune Plants: Surviving in a Desert
9 Beach Creatures: Tracks, Trails, and Traces
Beach Animals from Micro to Macro
Evidence of the Habitat Role of Animals
10 Carbonate Beaches: Seashells and the Stories They Tell
Carbonate Shells, Skeletons, and Secretions
Other Carbonate-Producing Organisms
Noncalcareous Plant and Animal Remains
The Significance of Broken Seashells
Orientation of Shells on the Beach
Shell Collecting: An Environmental Afterthought
11 Digging the Beach: Into the Third Dimension
Sidebar: Evidence of a Retreating Beach
PART III: THE GLOBAL THREAT TO BEACHES
12 Beaches at Risk: Sea-Level Rise and the Human Response
Sidebar: A Toxic Green Wave on the Beach
The Environmental Truths About Beaches
13 The Urbanized Beach: From Middens to the Maelstrom of Development