Women face disproportionate challenges while undertaking coastal fieldwork. We draw on 18 responses that specifically raise fieldwork issues from an international survey about perceptions and experiences of gender inequality for those working in coastal sciences to discuss two common themes. These themes are barriers to fieldwork participation and challenges for women working in coastal field settings such as boats or working on beaches, including discrimination and sexual harassment. We suggest five priority behavioural and policy changes to improve the fieldwork experience for women in coastal sciences: (i) publicise field role models and trail blazers, (ii) improve opportunities and capacity for women to undertake fieldwork, (iii) establish field codes of conduct, (iv) acknowledge the challenges women face in the field and provide support where possible, and (v) foster an enjoyable and supportive fieldwork culture.

The olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea is the most abundant marine turtle species in Guatemala, representing > 99% of all nests. Along with other marine turtles, they are important both culturally and ecologically. Conservation efforts rely almost exclusively on an informal system whereby local residents can harvest olive ridley sea turtle nests on the condition they donate 20% of each nest to a hatchery, where the eggs are incubated and hatchlings later released. This system was initiated in the 1970s and, until recently, no effort has been made to determine its sustainability. In a 2020 publication based on tracks on a single beach in Guatemala and 15 years of egg incubation data from Guatemalan hatcheries, it was concluded that the population had increased. Several weaknesses were detected in this research. To verify the validity of the conclusion, we analysed data from 22 years (2 years are missing) and 11 beaches using several statistical models. We used an intraseasonal model of nesting phenology to fill in missing data for monitored periods during a nesting season, and a new method of spatial and temporal aggregation of nesting seasons. Based on our findings, we reject the hypothesis that olive ridley sea turtle nesting activity is increasing. The total nesting activity for these 12 beaches was stable over the 22-year period. Because of inconsistent hatchery management and the financial dependency of local communities on the sale of turtle eggs, the number of incubated eggs cannot be used as an indicator of the population trend of olive ridley sea turtles in Guatemala.

The present study describes the variation in the benthic macrofauna related to the presence of Sabellaria wilsoni (Polychaeta: Sabellariidae) reefs on a sandy beach of the Brazilian Amazon Coast. The study also investigated whether the erosion of parts of the reef by intense wave action results in differences in the fauna. Samples were collected from a patch of reef and the adjacent sandy sediment for the analysis of the zoobenthos and substrates (granulometry and organic matter content) on Algodoal-Maiandeua Island (northern Brazil coast). The reef had more heterogeneous sediments and a higher organic matter content, and its fauna was distinct from that of the beach, with a higher density, species richness and diversity. The reef fauna included taxa typical of both consolidated and unconsolidated substrates. The portion of the reef more exposed to wave action had a lower density of reef-building worms, and these worms were smaller in size than those of the more protected portion, although the associated fauna of the exposed portion was denser and richer in species. These results confirmed that S. wilsoni is an important ecosystem engineer on the Amazon coast, and that the diversity and unique features of the fauna associated with these reefs emphasize their importance as a substrate for the local benthic communities, in particular in areas where consolidated bottoms are naturally scarce.

Postglacial emergence curves are used to infer mantle rheology, delimit ice extent, and test models of the solid Earth response to changing ice and water loads. Such curves are rarely produced by direct dating of land emergence; rather, most rely on the presence of radiocarbon-datable organic material and inferences made between the age of sedimentary deposits and landforms indicative of former sea level. Here, we demonstrate a new approach, 10Be dating, to determine rates of postglacial land emergence in two different settings. In southern Greenland (Narsarsuaq/Igaliku), we date directly the exposure, as relative sea level fell, of gravel beaches and rocky outcrops allowing determination of rapid, post–Younger Dryas emergence. In western Greenland (Kangerlussuaq), we constrain Holocene isostatic response by dating the sequential stripping of terrace sediment driven by land-surface uplift, relative sea-level fall, and resulting fluvial incision. The technique we employ provides high temporal and elevation resolution important for quantifying rapid emergence immediately after deglaciation and less rapid uplift during the middle Holocene. 10Be-constrained emergence curves can improve knowledge of relative sea-level change by dating land emergence along rocky coasts, at elevations and locations where radiocarbon-datable sediments are not present, and without the lag time needed for organic material to accumulate.

This paper presents a case study that assessed spatial variations in the tectonic uplift rates of beach deposits in the relict Kujukuri strand plain, situated on the northeastern coast of the Boso Peninsula, eastern Japan. The southern Boso Peninsula is tilted downward to the northeast due to plate subduction along the Sagami Trough. However, the cause of the northeastern coast uplift creating the relict strand plain is unclear, due to the absence of a Holocene raised marine terrace sequence. Elevations and ages of beach deposits were collected from drilled cores and ground-penetrating radar profiles along three shore-normal sections in the southern Kujukuri strand plain. From this, alongshore variations in the relative sea level since the mid-Holocene could be seen. These corresponded to north-to-northeast downward tilting at a rate of 0.4 m/ka for an interval 10 km and are concordant with the longer term tilting of the last interglacial marine terrace surrounding the plain. Although it is difficult to assess shore-normal variations of uplift based on the present dataset, the recognized tilting apparently continues to the tilting of the southern Boso Peninsula, implying the Sagami Trough probably affects the uplift of the Kujukuri coast.

The radiocarbon ages of mollusc shells from the Bogenfels Pan on the hyper arid southern coast of Namibia provide constraints on the Holocene evolution of sea level and in particular, the mid-Holocene highstand. The Bogenfels Pan was flooded to depths of 3 m above mean sea level (amsl) to form a large subtidal lagoon from 7300 to 6500 calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal yr BP). The mollusc assemblage of the wave sheltered lagoon includes Nassarius plicatellus, Lutraria lutraria, and the bivalves Solen capensis and Gastrana matadoa, both of which no longer live along the wave-dominated southern Namibian coast. The radiocarbon ages of mollusc shell from a gravely beach deposit exposed in a diamond exploration trench indicate that sea level fell to near or 1 m below its present-day position between 6500 and 4900 cal yr BP. The rapid emergence of the pan between 6500 and 4900 cal yr BP exceeds that predicted by glacio-isostatic models and may indicate a 3-m eustatic lowering of sea level. The beach deposits at Bogenfels indicate that sea level rose to 1 m amsl between 4800 and 4600 cal yr BP and then fell briefly between 4600 and 4200 cal yr BP before returning to 1 m amsl. Since 4200 cal yr BP sea level has remained within one meter of the present-day level and the beach at Bogenfels has prograded seaward from the delayed arrival of sand by longshore drift from the Orange River. A 6200 cal yr BP coastal midden and a 600 cal yr BP midden 1.7 km from the coast indicate sporadic human utilization of the area. The results of this study are consistent with previous studies and help to refine the Holocene sea-level record for southern Africa.

Exposed sandy beaches are widespread coastal habitats with temporal and spatial variability. O Rostro beach (Galicia, north-west Spain) was the most severely affected beach in the ‘Prestige’ oil spill (November 2002). Monitoring sampling was conducted to study macroinfaunal composition and structure after the oil spill episode. The purpose of this survey was to characterize macroinfaunal variations on the beach over a yearly scale (2003–2007) and determine the recovery period. These data are compared with the only available data collected before the spill (1995). Two zones where identified with different recovery trends: (1) supralittoral, occupied either by talitrid amphipods, oniscoidean isopods and insects; and (2) intertidal, where marine crustaceans prevailed. Beach morphodynamics partially buried the oil, which gradually reappeared and was dragged to the coast. Negative ecological effects were observed in the short term (six months after the 2002 spill) but macroinfauna apparently recovered in the following years (2004–2007), showing that macroinfaunal assemblages of this beach are resilient enough to recover after severe stress.

The current “Australian-ness” of outdoor environmental education is an evolving “set” of socio-cultural constructions. These constructions can be interpreted within the circumstances of an empirical study of tertiary study abroad students' participation in an undergraduate semester long unit “Experiencing the Australian Landscape” (EAL) as an ambivalent mixture of belonging and beach, or solidity and fuidity. This ambivalence imparts various meanings within and about the Australian context of beach as a “place”. The study is based on an interpretive mixed method ethnographic and phenomenological small-scale case study. It fnds that the beach experience is infuenced by various social discourses, such as neocolonialism, individualism and mobility. Participants experienced the beach in a fuid sense of non-belonging, despite the EAL intention of fostering a place-responsive pedagogy. In order to understand their experience and its alleged link to an enhanced environmental awareness, an embodied dialectic descriptive interpretation of place experience is suggested.

The swash zone interstitial water (SZIW) which occupies interstices, or spaces between sand grains at the shoreline is suspected of accumulating microbes and thus of posing a health risk for beach users. In this study we examined the presence and concentrations of filamentous fungi and yeasts in SZIW and compared the results with the fungal densities found in the beach sand at three sampling locations along a Mediterranean beach (Sturla Beach, Genoa City, Italy). Unexpectedly SZIW had the highest counts of total filamentous fungi and yeasts while sand samples always displayed lower counts. The SZIW also harboured a high fungal diversity with ten genera and 74 different strains isolated from this matrix while only eight genera and 47 different strains were isolated from the beach sand samples. Overall data from this study suggest that SZIW may constitute an important reservoir of fungal micro-organisms in the beach environment.