Abstract
Wind characteristics and availability of airborne sediments control aeolian dynamics. Availability of sediments has been only estimated from dune dimensions. Nevertheless, this method is not valid in serir (stone dessert) and sand sheets deposits, where surface properties better than volume of materials define their sediment availability. The area chosen for this study is the Isthmus of Jandia (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands), which presents a high diversity of present day aeolian environments. Grain-size and compositional parameters from surface samples permit the design of its sedimentary cartography, which shows spatial and seasonal variations of the aeolian dynamics. Values of these parameters have been combined by statistical analyses to obtain a new parameter, lineal combination of mean size, sorting, skewness, and carbonate content, which has been named the Aeolian Sediment Availability (ASA) parameter. The ASA parameter presents several advantages over the previous mobility diagrams (mean size vs sorting), since it considers more sedimentary variables, has a continuous numerical gradient which permits the plotting of maps of the aeolian sediment availability, and has a clear physical meaning. Dynamics inferred from this parameter are satisfactory compared with local wind data, empirical transport rates and landscape unit maps of the area.
Highlights
The relationship between wind energy and sediment properties defines aeolian sand transport.Many other environmental factors modify this process in coastal dunes, such as vegetation, humidity content, topography, and human actions (Sherman and Hotta, 1990), but two basic conditions are i) wind exceeding a threshold shear stress and ii) availability of sediments to be blown
We present a new concept closely related to the previous one, which is that of aeolian sediment availability (ASA)
Average values of graphic grain-size parameters are very similar in both study periods, and correspond to TABLE 1. – Average values and standard deviation of graphic grain-size parameters and carbonate content for each survey
Summary
The relationship between wind energy and sediment properties defines aeolian sand transport. Many other environmental factors modify this process in coastal dunes, such as vegetation, humidity content, topography, and human actions (Sherman and Hotta, 1990), but two basic conditions are i) wind exceeding a threshold shear stress and ii) availability of sediments to be blown. Wind characteristics have been extensively studied: vertical velocity profiles (Bagnold, 1941, Bauer et al., 1992), interaction with dune forms Physical models of aeolian sand transport derived from wind tunnel and field observations Do not consider restrictions in the mobility of sediments caused by an inadequate aeolian sediment supply (Williams and Lee, 1995). Aeolian sediment supply (ASS) refers to the sediment volume
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