The backshore zone is transitional environment strongly affected by ocean, air and sand movements. On dissipative beaches, the formation of ephemeral dunes over the backshore zone plays significant contribution in the beach morphodynamics and sediment budget. The aim of this work is to describe a novel method to identify ephemeral dunes in the backshore region and to discuss their morphodynamic...

Horqin Sandy Land is a fragile, seriously desertified region located in Inner Mongolia of China. Overgrazing is one of the primary drivers of desertification in this region. We investigated whether the establishment of grazing exclosures in areas with active sand dunes enhances soil carbon (C) sequestration and benefits soil recovery. The results showed that soil organic C storage was 1.4, 1.9,...

In this work, we present measurements of the height profile, wind velocity and sand flux performed on transverse dunes in the dune field known as “Lençóis Maranhenses”, northeastern Brazil. From the measured profile, we selected one dune to measure the air shear stress and the sand flux and compared the results with the theoretical predictions from a dune model in two dimensions recently introd...

The structure of the barchan field located between Tarfaya and Laayoune (Atlantic Sahara, Morroco) is quantitatively investigated and compared to that in La Pampa de la Joya (Arequipa, Peru). On the basis of field measurements, we show how the volume, the velocity and the output sand flux of a dune can be computed from the value of its body and horn widths. The dune size distribution is obtaine...

An endeavor to feel the pulse of a coast devastated by a powerful oceanographic event is made. Results of field investigations along Tamil Nadu seaside revealed that the tsunami of December 2004 demolished dwellings within strips ranging from 6 to 132 m (average width, 41 m) from the dune, and flooded up to 862 m (average, 247 m) from the shore. The event damaged sand dunes, ripped dune vegetat...