Coastal and Shelf Sedimentation in Association with Dynamic Processes, Global Change Impacts, and Stratigraphic Records: An Overview of the Scientific Problems
This paper attempts to propose some research topics for the field of Quaternary studies, on the basis of an examination of the scientific problems associated with coastal and shelf sediment dynamics in relation to the global change impacts and the resultant geological records. In terms of the basic dynamics processes, important issues include the vertical spatial scale and the suspended sediment concentration of the water column that influence the benthic boundary layer, long-distance suspended sediment transport caused by shelf circulation and water mass movement, the mechanisms for the formation of hyperpycnal flows in estuaries and on the continental shelf, processes associated with the subaqueous delta and alongshore clinothems, and physical oceanographic responses to turbidity current events. For the “global change impacts”, there is a need to study the carbon burial patterns in response to catchment changes and biological reef evolution, the system status transfer that influences the dynamic process patterns, and the approaches to quantitative modeling of the formation of sediment systems.