Baseline assessment of beach cast appearance in the South-Eastern Baltic by video monitoring at a pilot site in the Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia).

A webcam was installed on the shore of the South-Eastern Baltic (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia) to monitor the beach dynamics and beach-cast (BC) daily from November 1, 2019, to October 31, 2020. The beach was formed not the whole year (77%). The most frequent BC residence time was one day (1-21, 4.1 on average, and 1-19, 4.3 on average days to the west and east of the groin, respectively). The BC consisted primarily of algae. Fresh BC occupied smaller area, and its layer was thicker than that of long-discarded and trampled BC. The specific amount of material (per m2) in a fresh BC was 3.7 times higher in volume and 2.6 times higher in weight than in long-discarded and trampled BC. For fresh and old BC, the specific volumes were 63 and 17 l per m2, respectively, and the specific masses were 48 and 18 kg per m2, respectively.