The sand dunes and their vegetation along the Mediterranean coast of France. Their likely response to climatic change
✍ Scribed by Jean-Jacques Corre
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1991
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 818 KB
- Volume
- 6
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0921-2973
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The Golfe du Lion is mainly bordered by low and narrow sand dunes. Since about four decades, 1/3 of its shoreline has been receding, while 1/3 has been prograding and another 1/3 is stable.
Several types of dunes may be described mainly depending on storms, high wind frequencies and sand grain size. Vegetation on dune system is distributed along a primary gradient according to sand stability and soil development, and a secondary gradient along slope of dune according to a seasonal cycle of fresh and salt phreatic water level.
Global changes in climate may influence these geomorphological and biological structures mainly through:
-Winter minimum temperatures changing the distribution of several plant species, especially in the middle part of the Golfe du Lion.
-Frequent high storms which cause damages to the front of the dune systems and disrupt the shore.
Changes in dune ecosystems will be cyclic so these tendencies will be obvious only upon a long term period.
Physiography of the Golfe du Lion
The Golfe du Lion (Fig. ) forms an arc of about 270 km long. Situated between lat. 42030 ' and 43030 , N and long. 3~ 5 ~ east, the Golfe is open towards the southeast. It extends from the crystalline massif of the Alb6res in the SW, which creates a deeply indented rocky coast, to the Estaque calcareous chain in the NE. Most of the coast is lagoonal with a few rocky capes (Cap Leucate, La Clape Mrs, Cap d'Agde, near the mouth of H6rault river, Mont Saint-Clair at S6te). The Rh6ne delta is situated on the east of the Golfe. As much as 40~ of the shoreline has been formed by the alluvial deposits of the Rh6ne river.