Sand helps buffer the coast from storms …. It keeps the waves from digging into the base of coastal bluffs. So what happened to all that sand? The ocean has been sucking up sand faster than it can be replaced, according to Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Besides storm surges and sea-level rise, there’s also an inland side to the problem, he said. “We’ve kind of been slowly starving our coasts of the sediment supply that it needs to be healthy and resilient,” Sanders said. Read More