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One-Year Evolution of a Mediterranean Sandy Beach with Posidonia oceanica Banquettes (Arborea, Sardinia, Italy)

  • Paulo Cabrita
  • Riccardo Brunetta
  • Juan Montes-Pérez
  • Sabrina Terracciano
  • Enrico Duo
  • Paolo Ciavola
  • Clara Armaroli

Sandy coasts, representing 40% of global shorelines, are essential for coastal defence and ecosystems. Natural solutions are increasingly studied to provide beach protection while enhancing ecosystem services, such as seagrass deposition on the coast. This study investigates the morphological evolution of a beach characterised by a low human impact, where Posidonia oceanica is present and forms banquettes. Fieldwork campaigns, including topographic surveys and drone mapping, were conducted over 1.5 years. A storm during one campaign led to the formation of extensive Posidonia banquettes, particularly in the southern part of the beach, a trend observed in all surveys. This distribution influenced erosion trends, with long medium-term analysis showing overall erosion, especially in northern areas with fewer banquettes and a dune retreat of around 3 meters. These findings highlight the critical role of Posidonia banquettes in protecting against dune erosion, at least locally, although significant erosion over 1.5 years occurred in the whole studied area, suggesting that further investigations are needed.

  • Keywords:
  • Posidonia oceanica; Banquettes; Beach Morphology; Coastal Storms; Geomorphological evolution,
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Paulo Cabrita

University of Ferrara, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-7232-9724

Riccardo Brunetta

University of Ferrara, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-0027-8937

Juan Montes-Pérez

University of Cadiz, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0002-0365-5155

Sabrina Terracciano

University of Ferrara, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-1851-212X

Enrico Duo

University of Ferrara, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-1146-9966

Paolo Ciavola

University of Ferrara, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-7107-8185

Clara Armaroli

University of Bologna, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-5236-0185

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  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Pages: 671-682

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  • Publication Year: 2024

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

One-Year Evolution of a Mediterranean Sandy Beach with Posidonia oceanica Banquettes (Arborea, Sardinia, Italy)

Authors

Paulo Cabrita, Riccardo Brunetta, Juan Montes-Pérez, Sabrina Terracciano, Enrico Duo, Paolo Ciavola, Clara Armaroli

Language

Italian

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0556-6.58

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Tenth International Symposium Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurement Techniques

Book Subtitle

Livorno (Italy) 11th-13th June 2024

Editors

Laura Bonora, Marcantonio Catelani, Matteo De Vincenzi, Giorgio Matteucci

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0556-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0556-6

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-0557-3

Series Title

Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurement Techniques

Series E-ISSN

2975-0288

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