Hydrodynamic, neotectonic and climatic control of the evolution of a barrier beach in the microtidal environment of the NE Ionian Sea (eastern Mediterranean)

Abstract

The existence of barrier beaches is crucial, as they act as a buffer zone to the associated wetlands, whilst they are sensitive to climate change. The present study offers an insight into the processes controlling the formation and evolution of the Gyra barrier beach (NW coast of the island of Lefkada) in the microtidal, tectonically very active Ionian Sea under the influence of regional climate change and human interference. Such investigations are sparse in the literature. Existing information regarding regional geology, sediment availability and human intervention is combined with the collection of geophysical data, field observations and simulations of nearshore hydro- and sediment dynamics, analysis of climatic variations with respect to offshore wind/wave patterns (including storminess), in situ measurements of recent morphometric changes (2006–2008) and historical shoreline changes (since the 1960s). The recent formation and evolution (mostly under retreat) of the Gyra barrier beach is shown to be the combined result of the regional seismotectonic setting, relative increase of sea level, coastal sediment transport patterns, as well as human impact (negative) on primarily terrestrial sediment influxes. The current erosional trend of the barrier beach is associated with a shift in the wind and wave direction (from SW to NW) of extreme storm events in the Ionian Sea since the 1980s. The regional climatic variations of the last decades are well correlated with the trend of the North Atlantic Oscillation.