Coastal Environments Beaches, Barriers, Bays, Lagoons, Estuaries, and Rocky Coastlines Shoreline environments are rapidly evolving landscapes. Wave action is a nearly constant force of erosion, with incredible power during storms. Changing conditions in nearshore setting, places of deposition can change to places of erosion, and vice versa. Daily tidal flow into large bays can carry as much as a large river in flood. Nearshore currents transport sediments to beaches, offshore bars, and offshore onto the continental shelf and beyond. Coastal environments also support diverse habitats for marine, brackish water, to freshwater and terrestrial environments which can change from season to season. Shoreline environments are subject to sea level changes; a change of a few feet can cause major changes to shoreline geometry. A beach and barrier island complex in cross-section profile. The landward migration of sedimentary "facies"is a result of sea level rise and deposition ...