Decadal evolution of a coastal dune field and adjacent beaches at North of Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain)

Abstract

This paper analyzes a certain area from two different approaches: a sedimentological one considering not only the classical parameters (e.g. grain size properties) but also aspects such as the ability of sediments to be blown or their foraminiferal content, and an evolutive approach which could be possible after correcting and georeferencing series of aerial photographs. The area includes different environments, such as current beaches, mobile dunes, semi-stabilized aeolian deposits and Pleistocene dunes. All them were sampled. This study area is specially interesting because the mobile dune field is prograding due to inputs from nearby beaches, while the leeward coast beaches are under erosion. Results show that even though there is an aeolian sand transport from the dune area towards the beaches, they are eroding mostly due to human factors.