CAREER: Capturing the translation of wave climate to coastal change on rocky shorelines across scales

岩石海岸占世界海岸线的一半以上。每天，这些海岸线都会受到数以千计的海浪的冲击，导致海岸线后退，有时甚至是灾难性的。随着气候变化和海浪变得更加极端，海岸退缩的潜在加速对自然栖息地、文化遗产、沿海社区和关键基础设施构成了重大威胁。然而，极端海浪对岩石海岸侵蚀的影响并不为人所知，这限制了对海岸灾害演变的预测。该项目将综合环境、地形和地质数据集，使用创新的地震监测技术，并开发新的模型，以了解岩石海岸侵蚀和海岸灾害对极端海浪的敏感性。该项目将把研究活动纳入面向公众的外联和大学教育，包括新开发的教育模块和在线互动工具，两者都利用可公开获取的现场直播数据集。该项目旨在了解可变的波浪作用如何转化为多岩石海岸线上的海岸侵蚀和海蚀崖撤退。这项工作围绕三个部分展开：(1)量化构造和近岸地形如何控制向岩石海岸的波浪能量传输，(2)测量各种环境下的近岸波浪变换和海蚀崖响应，以及(3)试行海岸侵蚀模型，该模型考虑了波浪气候、波浪过滤效应和悬崖侵蚀阈值。该项目的主要贡献包括对波浪能量传递的概率描述，将波浪气候转化为海岸地貌工作的直接现场测量，以及量化海岸对不断变化的环境极端的敏感性的新型侵蚀模型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rocky coasts make up over half of the world’s coastlines. Each day, these coastlines are hammered by the force of thousands of crashing waves, causing the coastline to retreat, sometimes catastrophically. As climate changes and ocean waves become more extreme, potential acceleration of coastal retreat poses significant threats to natural habitats, cultural heritage, coastal communities, and critical infrastructure. However, the influence of extreme waves on rocky coast erosion is not well-known, limiting the prediction of evolving coastal hazards. This project will synthesize environmental, topographic, and geologic datasets, use innovative seismic monitoring techniques, and develop new models to understand the sensitivity of rocky coast erosion and coastal hazards to extreme waves. The project will integrate research activities into public-facing outreach and university education, including newly developed educational modules and online interactive tools, both leveraging publicly accessible, live-streamed datasets. This project aims to understand how variable wave action translates to coastal erosion and sea cliff retreat on rocky coastlines. The work is structured around three components: (1) quantifying how tectonics and near-shore morphology control wave energy delivery to rocky shores, (2) measuring near-shore wave transformation and sea cliff response across a range of settings, and (3) piloting a coastal erosion model that accounts for wave climate, wave filtering effects, and cliff erosion thresholds. The project's main contributions include a probabilistic description of wave energy delivery, direct field measurement of wave climate translation to coastal geomorphic work, and a novel erosion model quantifying coastal sensitivity to shifting environmental extremes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.