Advances in Coastal Dune and Aeolian Processes Research

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Coastal Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 November 2025 | Viewed by 459

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CEFREM Laboratory, University of Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France
Interests: coastal dune and aeolian processes, spit and coastal barrier evolution; nearshore and intertidal bar behavior; impacts of climate change on coastal systems

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Guest Editor
Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, 1261 Duck Road, Duck, NC 27949, USA
Interests: coastal dune and aeolian processes; nearshore hydrodynamics; shoreline and sandbar evolution; numerical modeling; ecomorphodynamic processes

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Guest Editor
Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain
Interests: coastal dune; restoration ecology; plant–animal interaction; plant invasion
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Coastal dune systems are dynamic landforms shaped by complex interactions between wind, waves, vegetation, and human activity. Growing concern over their resilience to environmental change, given their increasing use as a form of natural infrastructure along coastlines around the world, has inspired a considerable amount of fundamental and applied research on aeolian geomorphology and coastal science. This Special Issue aims to highlight contemporary research on coastal dune and aeolian processes across diverse climatic and geographic contexts.

This Special Issue encompasses a wide range of topics, including beach–dune evolution, wind-driven sediment transport, biotic–abiotic interactions, and vegetation’s role in dune morphology. Multi-scale approaches and emerging tools such as remote sensing, UAVs, LiDAR, and machine learning are of particular interest. Submissions of fieldwork, lab experiments, remote sensing analyses, and numerical or conceptual models will be considered.

We are also seeking review papers and case studies that explore the feedback between geomorphic and ecological dynamics or assess the impacts of climate change and human activities on coastal dune systems.

Dr. Nicolas Robin
Dr. Nicholas Cohn
Prof. Dr. Juan B. Gallego-Fernández
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • coastal dune morphodynamics
  • aeolian processes and sediment transport
  • coupled marine–aeolian interactions
  • biotic–abiotic interactions
  • spatial distribution of dune vegetation
  • plant functional traits
  • process-based numerical modeling
  • remote sensing and monitoring
  • dune restoration ecology
  • the impacts of climate change and biological plant invasion on dune ecosystems

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 5771 KB  
Article
A Discrete Particle Modeling Framework for Exploring the Evolution of Aeolian Sediment Transport on Moist Sand Surfaces
by Xiuqi Wang, Gerhardus H. P. Campmans, Thomas Weinhart, Anthony R. Thornton and Kathelijne M. Wijnberg
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13(9), 1733; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13091733 - 9 Sep 2025
Viewed by 221
Abstract
Aeolian sand transport on beaches is strongly affected by surface moisture, but its influence on transport evolution remains poorly understood. We present a novel discrete particle modeling framework to systematically investigate how moisture from liquid bridges affects the development of transport toward steady [...] Read more.
Aeolian sand transport on beaches is strongly affected by surface moisture, but its influence on transport evolution remains poorly understood. We present a novel discrete particle modeling framework to systematically investigate how moisture from liquid bridges affects the development of transport toward steady state after initiation. Moist sediment particles are modeled using a particle-based approach with evolving liquid bridges coupled to a one-dimensional airflow solver. The model captures realistic grain-scale collision dynamics under moist conditions and reproduces key features of aeolian transport in the dry limit. Simulations reveal two distinct behaviors: In steady state, the transport rate remains insensitive to moisture as lower saltation concentrations are compensated by higher saltation velocities; in the transient phase, however, increasing moisture prolongs the growth phase and delays the peak in transport rate. This delay arises because sand concentration peaks increasingly later than mean saltation velocity as moisture content increases. By projecting the temporal model results into a spatial representation, the position of peak transport is found to scale linearly with wind shear velocity, showing greater sensitivity at higher moisture levels. A preliminary test suggests that evaporation is essential for the initial grain dislodgement by wind alone but is unlikely to affect steady-state transport. This study explains the longer fetch distances observed on moist beaches before transport equilibrates and provides a physics-based tool for predicting sediment transport under varying moisture conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Coastal Dune and Aeolian Processes Research)
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