In the Pacific Basin, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant mode of interannual climate variability, driving substantial changes in oceanographic forcing and impacting Pacific coastlines. Yet, how sandy coasts respond to these basin-scale changes has to date been limited to a few long-term beach monitoring sites, predominantly on developed coasts. Here we use 38 years of Landsat imagery to map shoreline variability around the Pacific Rim and identify coherent patterns of beach erosion and accretion controlled by ENSO. On the basis of more than 83,000 beach transects covering 8,300 km of sandy coastline, we find that approximately one-third of all transects experience significant erosion during El Niño phases. The Eastern Pacific is particularly vulnerable to widespread erosion, most notably during the large 1997/1998 El Niño event. By contrast, La Niña events coincide with significant accretion for approximately one-quarter of all transects, although substantial erosion is observed in southeast Australia and other localized regions. The observed regional variability in the coastal response to ENSO has important implications for coastal planning and adaptation measures across the Pacific, particularly in light of projected future changes in ENSO amplitude and flavour.

在太平洋盆地，厄尔尼诺/南方涛动 (ENSO) 是年际气候变率的主要模式，推动海洋强迫发生重大变化并影响太平洋海岸线。然而，迄今为止，沙质海岸对这些盆地规模变化的反应仅限于几个长期海滩监测点，主要是在发达海岸。在这里，我们使用 38 年的 Landsat 图像来绘制环太平洋地区海岸线的变化图，并确定由 ENSO 控制的海滩侵蚀和增生的连贯模式。基于覆盖 8,3​​00 公里沙质海岸线的 83,000 多个海滩横断面，我们发现大约三分之一的横断面在厄尔尼诺阶段经历了严重的侵蚀。东太平洋特别容易受到广泛侵蚀，最引人注目的是在 1997/1998 年的厄尔尼诺事件期间。相比之下，尽管在澳大利亚东南部和其他局部地区观察到大量侵蚀，但拉尼娜事件与大约四分之一的横断面的显着增生同时发生。观察到的沿海地区对 ENSO 响应的区域变化对整个太平洋地区的沿海规划和适应措施具有重要意义，特别是考虑到 ENSO 振幅和风味的预计未来变化。