Sediment data, sediment photographs, and field photographs from a major field campaign conducted on the New Hampshire Atlantic beaches in 2017 are presented here. Research was carried out with the purpose of better understanding how sediment grain size of NH beaches varies under accretional and erosional conditions. Seven major beaches along the NH coast (Wallis Sands, Foss Beach, Jenness Beach, North Hampton Beach, North Beach, Hampton Beach, and Seabrook Beach) representing the range of morphologic and sedimentologic types found on the NH coast were sampled along multiple transects and multiple locations on each transect. This work provides baseline data to help determine the grain size of sediment needed for beach nourishment in NH.

The grain size database presented in the spreadsheet “Field Campaign_Data_Sediment_Data” provides complete descriptions for each sample including identification, station and sample characteristics, sediment classifications, grain size statistics, and grain size distribution. A location map is provided of the entire study area and all beaches for reference. The “single sample summaries” are divided into the seven major beaches. For each sample, a PDF summary includes field photographs of the beach and sediment sample, laboratory photographs of the samples where available, location information, collection information, and selected sediment classifications, grain size statistics, and grain size distribution. For each beach, a location map of the entire beach is presented which includes station locations and shoreline structures. Zoomed-in maps are also included to better view the locations of summer and winter sediment sampling sites. All maps are provided in Layout GeoTIFF format, which contain spatial reference information for the option to import and view in ArcMap.

In total, 140 sediment samples were collected at cross-shore transects in late winter – early spring following an extended period of beach erosion, and 97 sediment samples were collected in late summer/early fall following an extended period of accretion. Samples were analyzed with standard sieve and pipette analyses after Folk (1980). The sediment grain size classifications include: CMECS (Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard; FGDC, 2012); Gradistat (Blot and Pye, 2001); and Wentworth (Wentworth, 1922; described in Folk, 1954, 1980). Statistics are based on the phi scale and include the graphic mean, sorting, skewness, and kurtosis (Folk, 1980).