Coastal Impacts Around Guadiaro River Mouth (Spain)

The “Port of Sotogrande” Beach (San Roque, Cadiz, Spain) has suffered significant erosion and changes since the construction of the marina and port of Sotogrande (San Roque, Cadiz, Spain). This paper reviews the dynamical processes on Guadiaro front and establishes relationship between them. It sets from a comparative evolution of the Alboran Sea Coast outlets and bays since the Little Ice Age, which shows that the Guadiaro estuary has remained functional while all other Alboran fluvial estuaries silted to son. The study shows the evidences of the coastal impacts around the mouth, even further than mouth littoral barriers, of the port infrastructures; and it provides new elements to understand the dynamical processes on the mouth and surroundings as well. That should be fundamental for shore protection along the whole coastal stretch

La construcción del espacio litoral : el caso de la costa de Cartagena

El litoral ha constituido a lo largo de la historia una importante fuente de recursos económicos además de un punto estratégico para la defensa del territorio. El comercio, la pesca o la industria de la sal han propiciado la formación de poblaciones y ciudades al borde del mar. La costa funcionó como un ámbito defensivo, peligroso e insalubre durante siglos donde el mar modulaba el frente costero sin grandes interacciones con un entorno prácticamente deshabitado. A mediados del siglo XIX, las innovaciones técnicas y la pacificación definitiva del Mediterráneo permiten poner en valor sus características naturales y de oportunidad. Sin perder del todo su valor defensivo, el litoral resurge como recurso productivo y como lugar de ocio y disfrute de la población. El valor estratégico de la costa quedará también reflejado en el marco normativo. El derecho civil moderno recuperará el concepto de Dominio público Marítimo Terrestre a través de la Ley de Aguas de 1866 que regulará también los usos y las limitaciones en la propiedad privada litoral. Desde ese momento, las transformaciones económicas, sociales, jurídicas y ambientales van a provocar un cambio significativo en la relación entre la sociedad y la costa que dará paso a la construcción del espacio litoral que hemos heredado. Desde la triple perspectiva del litoral como sistema físico ambiental, sistema económico, productivo y cultural, y sistema administrativo y legal, el principal objetivo de la tesis será reconstruir el proceso de transformación del litoral consecuencia de la evolución en la forma de producción del espacio, de área defensiva a recurso productivo, y desde mediados del siglo XIX hasta principios del siglo XXI. Sin embargo, la construcción del litoral no ha sido homogénea ni constante a lo largo del tiempo. Ha estado sujeta a los distintos vaivenes económicos y sociales pero también a los cambios en el modelo territorial definido por el marco legal vigente, así como a los reajustes del propio sistema físico. Como instrumento sociopolítico, el marco legal regula las presiones del sistema económico sobre el medio, apostando por una visión frente a otra, y posibilitando el grado de transformación final. Así, el conocimiento sobre el territorio en el que se interviene y la definición del modelo de litoral por parte de los poderes públicos irán configurando el espacio físico, económico y social desarrollado en la costa. Para la reconstrucción del proceso de construcción del litoral, la tesis define cuatro fases diferentes y aplica las hipótesis y la metodología a la costa de Cartagena. Se presenta gráficamente la evolución en los tres sistemas en cada una de las fases, y se recompone el relato histórico a través de los hitos más relevantes para el proceso. En cada una de las fases, el nuevo modelo intentará dar respuesta a todo aquello que no funcionó o se quedó a medias en el periodo anterior. Las crisis económicas provocan la ralentización de la actividad productiva y, consecuentemente, de las transformaciones en el territorio. Servirán para establecer, en principio, un cambio de paradigma en la lectura y gestión del litoral que acabará traduciéndose en un nuevo texto legislativo en materia de costas (1969, 1988 y 2013). La reforma de la normativa responde a una nueva forma de entender, ordenar, gestionar e intervenir en el territorio, donde se modulan las pautas pero también la intensidad en la intervención. Pero nace condicionada por el litoral heredado: los derechos generados durante la vigencia del marco legal anterior; el modelo económico y sus presiones y expectativas sobre el litoral; y el medio físico en el que se acumulan los procesos de degradación no resueltos y los nuevos riesgos. Así, las conclusiones de la tesis ponen de manifiesto la necesidad de una visión compleja e integral sobre el litoral, en la que el urbanismo y la ordenación del territorio serán fundamentales para afrontar los nuevos retos en su construcción a futuro. ABSTRACT The littoral has been throughout history an important source of economic resources and a strategic point for the defense of territory. Trade, fishing or salt industry have led to the formation of towns and cities on the edge of the sea. The coast served as a defensive, dangerous and unhealthy place where the sea modulated for centuries the waterfront without major interactions with a virtually uninhabited environment. In the mid-nineteenth century, technical innovations and the final pacification of the Mediterranean allowed to value its natural features and opportunities. Without entirely losing its defensive value, the coast emerges as a productive resource and as a place of leisure and enjoyment of people. The strategic value of the coast will also be reflected in the legal framework. The concept of maritime-terrestrial public domain will be recovered by the modern civil law and the law of waters of 1866 governs the uses and limitations of private ownership of the coast. Since then, the economic, social, legal and environmental changes will to cause a significant change in the relationship between society and the coast that will give way to the construction of littoral space inherited. From the triple perspective of the littoral as a physical environmental system, an economic, productive and cultural system, and an administrative and legal system, the main objective of the thesis is to rebuild its process of transformation, as a result of the evolution in the way that space is produced, from defensive zone to productive resource, and from the middle of the nineteenth century until the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, the construction of the coast has not been uniform nor constant over time. It has been subject to different economic and social fluctuations and also to changes in the territorial model defined by the legal framework in force, as well as to readjustments of the physical system itself. As socio-political instrument, the legal framework regulates the pressure of the economic system on the environment, it bets on a vision over another and facilitates the final degree of transformation. Thus, the knowledge on the territory that is being intervened and the definition of the model of shoreline by public authorities will configure the physical, economic and social space developed on the coast. For the reconstruction of the littoral building process, the thesis defines four different phases and applies the hypothesis and methodology to the coast of Cartagena. It introduces graphically the evolution of the three systems in each of the phases and it recomposes the historical account through of the most important milestones for the process. In each phase, the new model will attempt to answer everything that did not work or was half in the previous period. Economic crises cause a slowdown in productive activity and, consequently, in the changes of territory. They serve to establish, in principle, a paradigm shift for reading and managing the littoral, eventually resulting in new legal texts on coasts matter (1969, 1988 and 2013). The reform of legislation responds to a new way for understanding, arranging, managing and intervening on the territory, where the guidelines and also the intervention intensity are modulated. But it is born conditioned by the inherited coast: the rights generated under previous legal framework; the economic model and its pressures and expectations on the littoral; and the physical environment which accumulates degradation processes unresolved and new risks. Thus, the thesis conclusions highlight the need for a complex and comprehensive view on the littoral, where urban planning and land-use planning will be key to meet the future challenges in its construction.

Geologia e petrologia da ilha de São Sebastião (Estado de São Paulo)

A ilha de São Sebastião consta principalmente de rochas alcalinas que formam um maciço de 300 km2 aproximadamente, constituindo o terceiro em área no Brasil. Apresenta-se em um "stock" alongado segundo NE-SW, encaixado em estruturas de gnais. As formações geológicas encontradas consistem em 1 - Granitos e Gnais (ARQUEANO), 2 - Eruptivas básicas (RÉTICO), 3 - Eruptivas alcalinas (JURÁSSICO) e 4 - Depósitos recentes (HOLOCENO). O método de estudo empregado foi o petrográfico e a coluna geológica estabelecida em base de dados petrográficos, tectônicos e fisiográficos. O arqueano é determinado por definição dos seus tipos petrográficos (1- gnais facoidal, 2- oligoclásio-gnais, 3- hornblenda-gnais, 4- biotita-gnais e 5- microlina-granito) idênticos aos concorrentes no considerado arqueano do Brasil meridional. O triássico (rético) é conferido às rochas básicas (diabásios e basaltos) pela sua semelhança tectônica e petrográfica com as congêneres que cortam de maneira semelhante o arqueano no continente. A "mise-en-place" das eruptivas alcalinas (1- Nordmarkito, 2- Biotita-pulaskito, 3- Pulaskito, 4- Nefelina-sienito, 5- Foiaito, 6- Essexito-foiaito, 7- Essexito e 8- Teralito) pode ser considerada jurássica devido suas relações com as eruptivas básicas referidas réticas, pois na praia do Bonete (foto 14) observa-se um dique de nordmarkito cortando outro de diabásio. As eruptivas quartzo-dioríticas (quartzo-microdiorito e quartzo-andesito) cortam as alcalinas no cume do Zabumba, indicando sua idade mais moderna que estas. Além deste fato, preenchem linhas de fraturas tectônicas recentes, como as falhas ao longo do canal de São Sebastião, indicando que a topografia deveria ser a mesma que a atual para permitir rios efusivos ao nível do canal ou que pelo menos toda a zona de extrusão estivesse, como hoje está, em superfície. Os depósitos aluviais marinhos e continentais são considerados recentes, (holocênicos) pelo favor da topografia onde se dispõe, ocupando o fundo os vales e os bordos do atual modelado costeiro, idade esta conferida em base fisiográfica. A tectônica que afetou a ilha de São Sebastião participa da que atuou em todo o litoral meridional brasileiro. Pode-se distinguir duas fases distintas: na primeira ocorreram as erupções básicas e as alcalinas subsidiárias e na segunda deram-se os falhamentos escalonados em blocos basculados para NW, com as fraturas de tensão preenchidas pelas eruptivas quartzo-dioríticas. Toda a atividade tectônica foi regulada pela direção NE-SW privilegiada da estrutura do arqueano, correspondente a antigos eixos dos dobramentos laurencianos e huronianos. A geomorfologia da ilha consta de uma antiga superfície de erosão rematada até a senilidade, - o peneplano cretáceo, hoje reduzida às cristas culminares do maciço alcalino e às satélites das estruturas gnáissicas, desnivelada pelo falhamento em blocos e ligeiramente adernada para NW devido ao basculamento. Ao lado desta topografia vestigial existe o modelado atual da ilha caracterizado por uma juventude do estágio evolutivo. Esta escultura foi inaugurada com os últimos levantamentos epirogênicos que ascenderam as eruptivas alcalinas plutônicas a mais de 1.300 m sobre o nível do mar. O modelado costeiro apresenta uma costa típica de submergência com esculturas em rias, no estágio da juventude. A presença de terraceamentos marinhos de abrasão, atualmente elevados cerca de 20 a 30 m, lembra as oscilações epirogênicas ou eustáticas do litoral.

Trabajos de seguimiento de la lapa ferruginosa Patella ferruginea Gmelin, 1791 en Andalucía en el marco de la Estrategia Nacional de Conservación de la especie

El gasterópodo marino Patella ferruginea se encuentra incluido en los Catálogos Español y Andaluz de Especies Amenazadas en la categoría “En peligro de extinción”. En 2008 fue aprobada la Estrategia de Conservación Nacional de la especie que establece la realización de un seguimiento de la población cada cuatro años. En Andalucía se ha realizado en 2010 el seguimiento de la especie empleando dos tipos de metodología: los “Controles de crecimiento”, mediante marcaje de ejemplares, y los “Censos exhaustivos” en “Tramos” de costa, para intentar detectar todos los individuos presentes. En el censo de 2010 se han muestreado unos 21 km de costa en 34 localidades, un 5% del litoral andaluz con presencia de la especie, lo que constituye un esfuerzo considerable, pero asumible para el control periódico de la misma. La densidad media detectada es muy baja, de 0,048 ind./m. El mayor número de individuos se encuentra en Cádiz y la población mejor estructurada en la isla de Alborán. Se estima que el tamaño actual de la población en Andalucía ronda los 1.800 ejemplares, lo que constituye un aumento con respecto a inventarios anteriores. Sin embargo, el contingente es muy reducido para garantizar la supervivencia de la especie. La categoría de protección propuesta por el Libro Rojo de los Invertebrados de Andalucía, “En peligro crítico” (MORENO y ARROYO, 2008), debe considerarse, por lo tanto, la más adecuada para la lapa ferruginosa siguiendo los criterios de valoración de la UICN (2001).

Análisis de encuestas como herramienta de gestión sostenible de especies cinegéticas en agrosistemas del este de la provincia de Alicante (Marina Baja): estudio del caso del jabalí Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758

El trabajo ha sido desarrollado en un agrosistema tradicional del NE de la provincia de Alicante (SE España). La superficie total del área de estudio es de aproximadamente 59.000 ha. La zona presenta grandes contrastes, con un área interior de morfología montañosa, con pequeñas cuencas dedicadas a la agricultura de secano, mientras que la zona litoral se caracteriza por un relieve menos abrupto, con núcleos de población y explotaciones agrícolas de regadío. El estudio se basa en la información extraída a partir de encuestas realizadas a los gestores cinegéticos, obteniendo datos acerca de las abundancias y la evolución de las poblaciones de jabalí entre los años 1980 y la actualidad. Se construye una base de datos SIG con un total de 15 cotos de caza. La base de datos incluye las siguientes variables: usos del suelo a nivel de coto, abundancias y evolución temporal de la especie. Los resultados muestran que dos de los cotos presentan densidades de jabalí elevadas (15-25 ind/ha), dos cotos presentan densidades medias (10-15 ind/ha), cinco cotos muestran densidades bajas (5-10 ind/ha) y otros seis cotos densidades muy bajas (0-5 ind/ha). Los valores máximos se encuentran en cotos de interior y de montaña donde todavía se mantienen en activo cultivos de secano y se intercalan con cultivos abandonados y áreas naturales. También se observan densidades elevadas en el único coto de todos los analizados que se encuentra en la costa, donde la disponibilidad de hábitat es menor y, por lo tanto, hay una mayor concentración de individuos. Finalmente, el jabalí ha aumentado sus poblaciones desde la década de los años 1980 en la totalidad de los cotos estudiados.

La frontera marítima fortificada: de la vigilancia a la señalización (XVI-XIX)

During the 16th century an ambitious political programme for building towers and forts bordering the Spanish Empire’s littoral, to protect it, is materialised. This sighting network over the sea horizon had the essential mission of detecting the presence of vessels that supposed a threat. The network was organised through the strategic arrangement of watchtowers taking profit of the geographical features in the topography so that they could communicate among them with a system of visual signs. The virtual union of the stated settlements defined the fortified maritime borderline. At the same time, this network of sentinels was reinforced (in certain settlements) by the construction of fortifications that acted like centres of data reception and supplied the necessary personnel for detection and transmission. So, this mesh was established by observation points (watchtowers) and information and defense centres (fortifications) to make the news arrive to the decision centres. The present communication aims to demonstrate this military strategy providing the inventory of all defensive architectures that marked this limit between the Segura river mouth until the Huertas cape and that these are spotted from the ‘Flat’ island (later Nueva Tabarca). A riverside geography of approxi-mately 30 km long where 3 fortifications and 7 towers of diverse typologies successively took place. Among the most relevant documents of this research, we could mention the plans of the fortifycations in Guardamar and Santa Pola from the 16th century (drawn in the 18th). For this research, drawings of towers made by the Ministry of Public Works at the end of the 19th century are also important; these documents show the new military tactics, neither for attack neither for defense. At most, they replaced for maritime lighthouses for signage and help for navigation while the others towers were abandoned.

Algunos apuntes acerca de los motivos para modificar la Ley 22/1988, de Costas

Después de más de treinta años, la ley de costas española ha sido profundamente modificada. Sigue en vigor, excepto en aquellos aspectos que se han revisado, pero los cambios son tan profundos que se ha dibujado un escenario notablemente distinto al anterior. En este trabajo se recogen los motivos que han hecho de la ley de 1988 una norma difícil de aplicar, así como la controversia generada especialmente por la transformación de los propietarios de viviendas situadas en el dominio público, en titulares de un derecho de ocupación temporal. Los efectos de los informes de la Comisión de Peticiones del Parlamento Europeo, emitidos en 2009 y 2013, han sido también determinantes en la redacción de la Ley 2/2013 de protección y uso sostenible del litoral y de modificación de la Ley 22/1988, de Costas.

Pollen abundance in Late Quaternary sediment cores off West Africa

The pollen record of three marine late Quaternary cores off Senegal shows a juxtaposition of Mediterranean, Northern Saharan, Central Saharan elements, which are considered transported by the trade winds from a winter-rainfall area, and Sahelian, Soudanese, Soudano-Guinean elements, considered transported both by winds and mostly by the Senegal River, and coming from the monsoonal, summer tropical rainfall area of southern West Africa. Littoral vegetation is either the edaphically dry and saline Chenopodiaceae from sebkhas at the time of the main regression, or the warm tropical humid mangrove with Rhizophora during the humid optimum period. Four stratigraphic zones reflect, from basis to top: Zone 4. A semi-arid period with a balanced pollen input. Zone 3. A very arid period with the disappearance of monsoonal pollen, probably from the disappearance of the Senegal River, a very saline littoral plain with Chenopodiaceae, a larger input of northern Saharan pollen from intensified trade winds. Zone 2. A quite humid period, much more so than today, very suddenly established, with a northward extension of the monsoonal areas, a rich littoral mangrove, and weakening of the trade winds. Zone l. A slow and steady evolution toward the present semi-humid conditions with regression of the mangrove, and of the monsoonal areas toward the south. Tentative datations and correlations with the Tchad area suggested: zone 4: 22,500 to 19,000 years BP; zone 3: 19,000 to 12,500 years BP; zone 2: 12,500 to 5,500 years BP; zone 1: 5,500 years BP to top of core. Dinoflagellate cysts display a tropical assemblage with mostly estuarine neritic elements and also a weak oceanic component, mostly in the lower slope core 47. Cosmopolitan taxa dominate the assemblage and only a few species point to more specialized environments. Quantitative variations of the assemblage are the basis of stratigraphy which is not similar to the pollen stratigraphy, and an inshore-outshore gradient has to be taken into account to correlate the three cores.

(Table 2) Fauna Harpacticoida and its distribution in the Kandalaksha Bay (White Sea) in July 1998 and 1999

Dependence of the faunal composition and species structure of the White Sea littoral Harpacticoida on sediment properties was studied. Three groups of species could be distinguished according to their relationship with sediment properties: (1) species typical of silty sediments, (2) species preferring sediments with high gravel content, and (3) species inhabiting well-sorted washed sands. Vertical distribution of crustaceans within sediments of different types was studied. Vertical migrations of harpacticoids (3) during the tidal cycle were described. Data on interannual variability of harpacticoid fauna are presented.

Results of a sediment profile and water analyses from Lake Hancza in northeastern Poland

We investigated the sedimentary record of Lake Hancza (northeastern Poland) using a multi-proxy approach, focusing on early to mid-Holocene climatic and environmental changes. AMS 14C dating of terrestrial macrofossils and sedimentation rate estimates from occasional varve thickness measurements were used to establish a chronology. The onset of the Holocene at c. 11600 cal. a BP is marked by the decline of Lateglacial shrub vegetation and a shift from clastic-detrital deposition to an autochthonous sedimentation dominated by biochemical calcite precipitation. Between 10000 and 9000 cal. a BP, a further environmental and climatic improvement is indicated by the spread of deciduous forests, an increase in lake organic matter and a 1.7% rise in the oxygen isotope ratios of both endogenic calcite and ostracod valves. Rising d18O values were probably caused by a combination of hydrological and climatic factors. The persistence of relatively cold and dry climate conditions in northeastern Poland during the first one and a half millennia of the Holocene could be related to a regional eastern European atmospheric circulation pattern. Prevailing anticyclonic circulation linked to a high-pressure cell above the retreating Scandinavian Ice Sheet might have blocked the influence of warm and moist Westerlies and attenuated the early Holocene climatic amelioration in the Lake Hancza region until the final decay of the ice sheet.

(Figure 2) Foraminifera in lower to middle Albian sediments of DSDP Hole 80-549

The Early Cretaceous series of Site 549 have been analyzed from both an ecological and a chronostratigraphical viewpoint. Lithology and microfaunal assemblages allow the division of these deposits into two parts. The lower part extends from the lower Barremian to the basal upper Barremian and possibly down into the upper Hauterivian. Three foraminiferal associations suggest an orderly evolution from a low-energy, littoral environment, in which continental influences dominated, to progressively more open marine conditions. A dolosparite bed (which has not yet been dated) separates these synrift deposits from lower to basal middle Albian postrift sediments that developed in a pelagic bathyal environment on the middle to nearby lower continental slope.

The interstitial subsoil fauna on the beach of Sarso Island, Red Sea

The scope of this research was to find out, how important is the presence of brackish water for the formation of the characteristical littoral subsoil fauna in the interstitial spaces of beaches. There is little precipitation in the Red Sea area and therefore little influence of freshwater on the beach. Moreover, the sandy beach of Sarso Island (Farasan Archipelago) is bordered landwards and underneath by solid limestone, preventing subsoil fresh water, if there is any, from penetrating into the beach region. The salinity of the interstitial water from Sarso beach lies a little above the salinity of the adjacent sea. The microfauna of Sarso beach is composed to a rather big proportion of such species that are known to be characteristical littoral subsoil water species, partially of world wide distribution. The ecological analysis of this fauna, i.e. the freeliving Nematodes, reveals the presence of two distinct associations: 1. the association of the low level subsoil region, close to the sea, with clear interstitial water, subject to regular exchange with the water of the adjcent sea. 2. the association of the high level subsoil region, 4-10 meter distant from the sea, with brownish water. Contrary to earlier results there is no distinction in salinity between the two associations, so it is not longer justified to apply the term brackish water fauna on the animals living in the association of the high level subsoil region.

Beach erosion and accretion at Virginia Beach, Virginia, and vicinity /

"December 1977."

Beach changes at Long Beach Island, New Jersey, 1962-73 /

Beach profile line data collected from 32 profile sites along Long Beach Island, New Jersey. A total of 2,158 profile line surveys were examined, using empirical eigenfunction analysis and other measures of beach variability. Most profile lines have shown an accretionary trend since 1962 with rates between 2.3 and 0.24 meter per year in spite of erosion estimates due to sea level rise on the order of 0.68 meter per year. A great deal of variability in profile line change takes place along the beach, increasing from north to south, due to the location of profile lines relative to structures and offshore linear shoals. Detailed closely spaced profile lines taken over a year in a groin field near the north end of the island indicate littoral transport directions shift from north to south. Evidence of a littoral transport node near the north end of the groin field has been found. Net transport of the node is toward the south, but the rate could not be established due to lack of adequate wave data. Profile line variability within groin cells shows that single profile lines are not sufficient to determine the net change within a cell. The design of future beach monitoring studies should consider coastal structures, offshore bathymetry, the method of analysis, and the scales of processes under study. A coastal storm in November 1968 moved the MSL back as much as 22 meters; however, the beach recovered without artificial measures. The offshore bathymetry shows a series of shoreface-connected linear shoals at several locations along the island. Limited data show that these have remained stable and that most beach variability takes place in water shallower than 3 meters.