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Influence of Lake Levels and Ice Cover on a Modified Shoreline: Ohio’s Headland Beaches

Fowler, Joshua K.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1433415129

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science in Environmental Science, Youngstown State University, Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geology and Environmental Sciences.
Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline, situated along the high-energy south-central Lake Erie coast, is characterized as a sediment-starved, wave-dominated erosional coastal system. Harbor-protecting structures installed in the early 1900s have fragmented the littoral system, which trends from W to E across the area, trapping bluff-derived sediments on their up-drift sides. The studied depositional harbor headlands of Lake County (i.e. Headlands Beach) and Ashtabula County (i.e. Walnut Beach and Conneaut Beach) are located along a ~65 km stretch of the south-central Lake Erie shoreline. Given many shared similarities and similar degrees of exposure to lake-level variations, winter-ice covers, and storm conditions (with associated surge levels, waves, and strong coastal currents), the geologic and anthropogenic distinctions between the sites need to be evaluated as potential drivers of coastal change. Historic shoreline positions, mapped from georeferenced aerial photographs, provide a chronology to evaluate the recent geomorphic evolution of these headlands with respect to these physical forcing parameters. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data reveal changes in prograding clinoform (i.e. preserved foreshore deposits) geometry, attesting to the inherent dynamics of headland beaches, which have been impacted by episodic erosion and deposition at decadal timescales. Multiple regression analysis of net beach growth, derived from shoreline positions, versus lake level and ice cover suggest that high lake levels are more strongly associated with beach growth overall; this is surprising given variable sediment sources and beach compositions from site to site. Beach growth during elevated lake levels are likely attributed to increased sediment fluxes from sourcing bluffs. Ice cover appears to play a secondary, yet important role in headland evolution as both an erosional and depositional mechanism capable of entraining course-grained sediments and reshaping shorelines. The design of harbor structures influences sedimentation at the headlands by dictating the bounds of beach form. Changes in the rates of decadal beach progradation are associated with distinct changes in breakwater orientation, which represent an intrinsic control on the distribution of accommodation-space distribution at the shoreline.
Christopher Robin Mattheus, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Thomas Diggins, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Jeffrey Dick, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Ethan Theuerkauf (Committee Member)
75 p.
Geographic Information Science; Geomorphology
Lake Erie; lakelevels; ice cover; headland beaches

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fowler, J. K. (2015). Influence of Lake Levels and Ice Cover on a Modified Shoreline: Ohio’s Headland Beaches [Master's thesis, Youngstown State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1433415129

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fowler, Joshua. Influence of Lake Levels and Ice Cover on a Modified Shoreline: Ohio’s Headland Beaches. 2015. Youngstown State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1433415129.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fowler, Joshua. "Influence of Lake Levels and Ice Cover on a Modified Shoreline: Ohio’s Headland Beaches." Master's thesis, Youngstown State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1433415129

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ysu1433415129
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This open access ETD is published by Youngstown State University and OhioLINK.