Intermittently Closed/Open Lakes and Lagoons (ICOLLs) are a particularly dynamic form of estuary characterised by periodic entrance closure to the ocean. Closure occurs when a subaerial sand berm stabilises across the entrance channel during times of low fluvial discharge. ICOLLs are of global importance as they provide valuable ecological habitats for many species and are associated with a wide range of management issues due to their cycle of entrance closure and opening. ICOLLs are found to be more widespread globally than previously described with 1477 of these estuaries being identified in this study. This constitutes an estimated 3 % of the world's estuaries and 15 % of all estuaries along microtidal coastlines. ICOLLs are concentrated along microtidal to low mesotidal coastlines in the mid-latitudes and predominantly on coasts with temperate climates. This distribution is related to greater wave heights as driven by high intensity winds and a longer fetch distance.The highest proportion of ICOLLs are present in Australia (21 % all global ICOLLs), South Africa (16 %) and Mexico (16 %). In Australia, a comparison with fluvial input found that it is less important than marine processes in determining ICOLL formation and that ICOLLs are associated with a relative tidal range of < 3.22. Additionally the majority of ICOLLS are small systems with catchments < 2000 km 2 and tidal prisms < 30 x 10 6 m 3 , forming at the mouths of rivers with generally low mean annual and specific discharges. Highlights Intermittently Closed/Open Lakes and Lagoons (ICOLLs) are concentrated in the midlatitudes globally They are found along coastlines with a micro-to low meso-tidal range and predominantly on coasts receiving storm waves and east and west coast swells 1477 of these systems were observed worldwide which constitutes approximately 3 % of the world's estuaries ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTA C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T Coastal processes appear to dominate over river hydrology in both the opening and closing of estuary mouths. KeywordsICOLL, estuary, coastal lagoon, estuary distribution IntroductionEstuaries are geomorphic systems which represent the transition between fluvial and marine environments (Boyd et al. 1992; Cooper, 2001;Roy et al. 2001). Their morphology is a direct function of the interaction between river outflow, waves and tides acting over a pre-existing catchment morphology (Dalrymple et al., 1992;van Niekerk et al., 2005). One key determinate of estuary morphodynamics is entrance condition. The larger the entrance channel, the greater the exchange of hydrodynamic energy and sediment (Bruun, 1986; Hume and Herdendorf, 1993 (Neira and Potter, 1992; Ranasinghe et al., 1999;Ranasinghe and Pattiaratchi, 2003). We refer to these systems as Intermittently Closed/Open Lakes and Lagoons (ICOLLs), a term ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTA C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T which has been most widely applied internationally (Roy et al., 2001;Schallenberg et al., 2010;Astel et al., 2016;Netto and Fonseca, 2017).ICOLLs a...
A large proportion of estuaries along microtidal wave-dominated coastlines worldwide have entrances that intermittently close to the ocean when tidal currents and fluvial discharge are insufficient to erode sediment delivered onshore by waves. In this study, these systems are termed “intermittently open/closed estuaries” (IOCE) in order to include all estuaries which intermittently close to the ocean. IOCE do not fit neatly into existing generalized estuary classification models and have been traditionally recognized as a single estuary type that constitute a rare subset of wave-dominated estuaries. In this study, 111 estuaries in Victoria, Australia, are used to develop a classification model that delineates between different IOCE types. This was undertaken using historic aerial imagery and quantification of the estuary channel width, catchment area, lagoon dimensions and tidal prism derived from remotely sensed data. Field surveying of entrance morphology was undertaken for a subsample of 35 IOCE characteristic of each section of the coast and which had detailed entrance condition records. Using this subset, IOCE were classified into three distinct types using multiple methods of statistical delineation (non-metric multidimensional scaling, hierarchical cluster analysis and distribution analysis). These three types are: (1) Type A, the largest IOCE which both close and open infrequently but for the longest durations; (2) Type B, medium sized IOCE which open and close several times per year for weekly to monthly durations; and (3) Type C (tidal creeks), the smallest IOCE located specifically in high rainfall, mountainous catchments and which exist in a predominantly open state. The three types of IOCE showed an order of magnitude difference in entrance closure duration as controlled by variations in the catchment area, tidal prism volume, dimensions of the estuarine lagoon and the entrance channel at the mouth. The classification is also applicable to wave-dominated coastlines internationally where IOCE are present.
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