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Barrier islands:
the 280 rocky, sandy islands and beaches, dunes, and wetlands along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They protect inland coastal areas from sea level rise, erosion, and storms.
Beach:
an accumulation of sand and gravel found at the landward margin of a sea or lake. The upper and lower limits approximate the water levels at highest and lowest tides.
Coastal barriers:
beaches, dunes, wetlands, and barrier islands that protect waterfront communities from storms, erosion, waves, and wind. Coastal barriers also support wetlands, which provide critical habitat for a wide variety of wildlife.
Coastal erosion:
the wearing away of land or the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage.
Dune:
a landform produced by the action of wind on uncompacted sediment, normally sand. Dunes can also be man-made, of vegetation and sand.
Public beach (Texas only):
"Any beach area, whether publicly or privately owned from the line of mean low tide to the line of vegetation bordering on the Gulf of Mexico to which the public has acquired the right of use or easement to or over the area by dedication, presumption, or has retained a right by virtue of continuous right in the public since time immemorial. . . ."
Source: GLO, Texas Coastal Management Program. Public Document [March 1994].) Generally, a beach is where the water meets the land.
Estuary:
a coastal area where fresh water from rivers and streams comes together with the salt water from the ocean. Many bays, sounds, and lagoons along coasts are estuaries.
Tide:
the periodic rise and fall of the earth's oceans, caused by the relative gravitational attraction of the sun, moon, and earth. Variations in tides are caused by: (a) changes in the relative positions of the sun, moon and earth; (b) uneven distribution of water on the earth's surface; and (c) variation in the seabed topography.
Sources:
Michael Allaby, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ecology [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994]);
Coast Alliance, Using Common Sense To Protect the Coasts: The Need To Expand the Coastal
Barrier Resource System [Washington, D.C.: Coast Alliance, 1990].
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