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Patterns And Behaviours Of Barrier Breaching In Lacustrine Environments: A Case Study From The Point Pelee Foreland, Jenny Gharib

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Great Lakes are non-tidal, but experience significant water level fluctuations at hourly, seasonal, and decadal scales. In response to elevated water levels, barrier beach-ridges, including those located on the eastern shore of the Point Pelee foreland, experience accelerated erosion, overwash, and breaching leading to the removal or burial of vegetation, and damage to infrastructure and vulnerable habitat. Historical aerial imagery between 1931–2022 and annual average lake levels between 1920–2022 were examined to characterize barrier retreat and breach initiation, expansion, and closure. The timing and rate of transgression and progradation, overwash, and breaching are dependent on decadal-scale variations in water …