The Coastal System Flashcards
What type of system is the coast and why?
An open system as it receives inputs from outside the system and transfers outputs away from the coast into other systems.
What other systems are linked to the coast’s system?
Terrestrial,atmospheric or oceanic and can include rock,water and carbon cycles.
What splits sediment cells?
Prominent headlands or rivers
What happens within the sediment cells?
Movement of sediment is contained and the flows of sediment act in dynamic equilibrium.
How would the dynamic equilibrium be upset?
In the long term - Human intervention
In the short term - Natural variations
What are examples of marine inputs?
Waves
Tides
Salt Spray
What are examples of Atmospheric inputs?
Sun
Air Pressure
Wind Speed
Direction
What are examples of human inputs?
Pollution
Recreation
Settlement
Defences
What are examples of outputs?
Ocean Currents
Rip tides
Sediment transfer
Evaporation
What are examples of stores/sinks?
- Beaches
- Sand dunes
- Spits
- Headlands and Bays
- Wave-cut platforms and Wave-cut notches
- Caves, Arches, Stacks and Stumps
What are examples of transfers/flows?
- Wind-blown sands
- Mass-movement processes (e.g landslides)
- Longshore drift
- Weathering
- Erosion
- Transportation
- Deposition
What are examples of energy?
- Wind
- Gravitational
- Flowing water
What is a negative feedback loop?
Mechanisms which balances change, taking the system back to equilibrium. It lessens any change which has occurred within the system
What is a positive feedback loop?
Mechanisms which enhance changes within a system, taking it away from the dynamic equilibrium and making it more unstable
