Abstract
Seagrass wrack are commonly found on the beach face of the sandy shore all around the world and often persists in situ during the whole year, favouring the emergence of conflicts for the use of the sandy coasts for bathing or for other recreational purposes. As a consequence, these deposits are often removed from the beach during the summer months, temporary stocked, and relocated on the shore face in the next autumn or winter season. The selection of the sites on the shoreline where the leaves should be released before the storms season is often an issue, considering the optimization needs between the transportation costs and the oceanographic features of the dumping site. In this study, a numerical approach was proposed to identify the most suitable areas for the autumnal repositioning of the seagrass wracks for two beaches of Sardinia, an island located in the Western Mediterranean Sea where Posidonia oceanica (L. Delile, 1813) is the most widespread seagrass species. The method is based on the use of hydrodynamic, wave, and particle tracking models and provides important indications useful for the management of this type of practice that can be extended to all different type of beaches along the Mediterranean coasts.
Highlights
Seagrass wrack, detached leaves, and stems are commonly found on beaches all around the world [1,2,3,4] and their deposition occurs on the beach face of the sandy shore [5]
A numerical approach was proposed to identify the most suitable areas for the autumnal repositioning of the seagrass wracks for two beaches of Sardinia, an island located in the Western Mediterranean Sea where Posidonia oceanica
This study aims to identify the most suitable areas for autumnal repositioning of the P. oceanica leaves for two beaches, Porto Taverna (PT) and Cala Brandinchi (CB; see Figure 1), located within the marine protected area (MPA) of Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo, along the eastern coast of Sardinia Island
Summary
Seagrass wrack, detached leaves, and stems are commonly found on beaches all around the world [1,2,3,4] and their deposition occurs on the beach face of the sandy shore [5]. 1813) is the most widespread seagrass species of the Mediterranean Sea [6] forming large meadows that colonize the sea bottom up to a depth of 40 m [7]. It is a multiannual marine plant with a maturation cycle of the leaf apparatus characterized by a continuous growth with detachments during the autumn and regrowth during the winter periods. In those traits of coasts facing P. oceanica meadows, the detachments and regrowing processes can produce accumulation of the leaves on the shore. Since the leaves are characterized by negative buoyancy, their accumulation on the shore is mainly due to the direct action of the wind waves and of the wave-induced littoral currents
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