Morphological and lithodynamic conditions in the marine coastal zone of the Vistula Spit (Gulf of Gdańsk, Baltic Sea)**This transborder research was inspired by the Laboratory of Coastal Systems, Atlantic Department of the P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, by the Department of Marine Geology, Institute of Oceanography, University of Gdańsk and by the system project ‘InnoDoktorant – Scholarships for Ph.D. students, 1st edition’, co-financed by the European Union within the framework of the European Social Fund. The authors are particularly indebted to Dr B. V. Chubarenko, Dr V. L. Boldyrev, Dr V. A. Chechko, D. A. Domnin, V. Y. Kurchenko and K. V. Karmanov. The data of the winds speed and directions was supplied by the ARMAAG Foundation.

AbstractThe paper presents a lithodynamic interpretation of the Polish-Russian morphological and lithological research project along the marine coastal zone of the Vistula Spit, carried out between July and September 2008. 78.4% of the coastal zone is characterized by a balanced environment, with fractional transport of sediments as bed and suspended load. Deposition was observed in 8.2% of the study area. A dynamic environment with a deficit of bed material, local turbulences and erosive trends were found in 13.2% of the coastal zone. The critical erosive current velocities vary from 16 to 20–26cm s−1