Effects of stone-made wind shelter structures over an arid nebkha foredune

Abel Sanromualdo-Collado; Leví García-Romero; Manuel Viera-Pérez; Irene Delgado-Fernández; Luis Hernández-Calvento

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164934

Effects of stone-made wind shelter structures over an arid nebkha foredune

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Oct 10:894:164934. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164934. Epub 2023 Jun 19.

Authors

Abel Sanromualdo-Collado¹, Leví García-Romero², Manuel Viera-Pérez³, Irene Delgado-Fernández⁴, Luis Hernández-Calvento⁵

Affiliations

¹ Grupo de Geografía Física y Medio Ambiente, Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global, IOCAG, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, Spain. Electronic address: abel.sanromualdo@ulpgc.es.
² Grupo de Geografía Física y Medio Ambiente, Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global, IOCAG, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, Spain; Geoturvol Research Group, Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain. Electronic address: levi.garcia@ulpgc.es.
³ Grupo de Geografía Física y Medio Ambiente, Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global, IOCAG, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, Spain. Electronic address: viera.manolo@gmail.com.
⁴ Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Ambientales, Universidad de Cádiz, UCA, Spain. Electronic address: irene.delgado@uca.es.
⁵ Grupo de Geografía Física y Medio Ambiente, Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global, IOCAG, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, Spain. Electronic address: luis.hernandez.calvento@ulpgc.es.

PMID: 37343872
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164934

Abstract

Beach users often use a range of strategies to shelter from the wind and blown sand. This involves building structures made of stacking stones. Different from other portable wind blockers, stone-made wind shelters can remain in the landscape for a long time. The process of stone removal from their original place and stone-stacking at another location has well-known effects on rock-dwelling wildlife. Less known are the impacts of stone wind shelters on biogeomorphological processes of beach-dune systems, especially those in arid coastlines, where foredunes formed by nebkhas are naturally discontinuous. This is the case of Playa del Inglés beach (Gran Canaria, Spain), the main sediment input to the Maspalomas dunefield, where the presence of stone wind shelters (goros) made by users has increased in recent decades following an increase of visitors. This research aims to investigate the effects of stone wind shelters on the dynamics of an arid beach-dune system at various spatiotemporal scales. The methodology includes the use of aerial photography to study the appearance and evolution of stone shelters in Playa del Inglés and some of their long-term effects on the foredune. Field data was also collected to investigate the effects that stone shelters have over a representative foredune nebkha in detail, by monitoring the changes (topography, airflow, and vegetation) of an individual landform as we progressively remove pebbles from a previously built stone shelter. Results show that stone stacking has an impact on airflow and sediment transport dynamics around landforms, limiting sediment accumulation inside nebkhas and therefore arid foredune growth. Stone stacking also constrict vegetation growth and its ability to retain sediment. The impacts of these artificial structures can be reverted following their removal but that the process of dismantling stones must be carefully planned. We elaborate some recommendations here to do it avoid damaging foredune vegetation.

Keywords: Beach-dune management; Coastal aeolian sedimentary system; Human impacts; Shadow dune; Stone-stacking.