Determinants of sediment properties and organic matter in beach and dune environments based on boosted regression trees

Grain size properties and the variation of organic matter in coastal beach and dune environments are assumed to be controlled by the intensity of aeolian processes, time and the sediment source. However, assumptions are based on relatively limited empirical studies. In this study, we examined which environmental variables are the main predictors of multiple topsoil properties. To achieve this, we analysed an extensive dataset systematically collected across all beach zones and a large geographical area at the Finnish Baltic Sea coast characterized by post‐glacial land uplift. We included a comprehensive set of predictors in the analysis and applied boosted regression trees, a modern modelling technique particularly suited for analysis without prior assumptions of the data model. The results suggest that mean grain size and sorting are mainly determined by northing and fetch. Northing, disturbance and fetch predicted the variation of soil organic matter while litter cover was strongly related to disturbance. Based on the analyses, we were able to identify the main drivers of multiple topsoil properties on land uplift beaches. Parent material is suggested to determine sediment textural properties, which largely masks the effects of transient processes. Mean grain size and sorting are highly interdependent: grains become finer and sorting improves with increasing shore exposure. The intensity of momentary geomorphic processes controls the accumulation of litter whereas the slower accumulation of organic matter in the soil is influenced also by the static exposure setting. Skewness and kurtosis of the grain size distribution are mainly influenced by unmeasured processes, potentially relating to the geomorphological origin of the sediment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.