SAN DIEGO — Hiro Matsumoto, a coastal geomorphologist at UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is digging deep to figure out ways to manage beach erosion.

He’s working on a study looking at cobble beaches, specifically, Matsumoto. With the help of a team of scientists, he has been digging a trench or hole underneath cobble berms at beaches in Torrey Pines and a beach in South Carlsbad.

By digging a hole, he said he can get a closer look at what’s underneath the cobbles. He said they will dig trenches or holes at beaches at the end of summer and then again during the winter and compare the data.

“All this information should tell us cobbles maybe behave if we have sand, or if we have less sand behave this way or the other way.”