Climate as a control on foredune mode in Southern Australia
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Studies dating back to at least the 1800s show that the world's vegetation distribution is determined largely by climate (Von Humboldt and Bonpland, 1807; De Candolle, 1855; Woodward, 1987). So climate, in combination with other environmental variables, have been extensively used to explain the main vegetation patterns around the world (Salisbury, 1926; Good, 1953; McArthur, 1972; Box, 1981; Walter, 1985; Woodward, 1987). It is recognized from the field of biogeomorphology (Corenblit et al., 2011), that since vegetation started to colonize emerged surfaces, complex changes in Earth surface processes and, consequently, in the landforms, have been produced (Murray et al., 2008; Davies and Gibling, 2009, Davies and Gibling, 2010).
Primarily in desert dune systems, but also some coastal systems, various models have been developed to explain the functioning of sand mobility and development of dunes types with respect to climatic variables, such as: wind (Fryberger and Dean, 1979; Tsoar, 2005; Miot da Silva and Hesp, 2010), a combination of wind, precipitation and temperature (Wasson, 1984; Lancaster, 1988), or wind energy and sand supply (Wasson and Hyde, 1983; Louassa et al., 2018; Lü et al., 2018). In coastal dune systems, foredunes (including nebkhas) and dunefield development and evolution has been shown to depend on a variety of regional or local factors such as wind velocity and direction (Rotnicka, 2011), wave energy and surfzone-beach type, storm intensity, scarping and overwash occurrence, and short to long term coastal dynamics (stability, progradation or retrogradation), vegetation cover and density, and sediment supply (Short and Hesp, 1982; Hesp, 1988; 2002; Davidson-Arnott, 2010; Keijsers et al., 2015; Davidson-Arnott et al., 2018).
Rainfall and temperature patterns are responsible for the different floristic regions on beach-dune systems worldwide (Doing, 1985; Takhtajan, 1986; Brunbjerg et al., 2014). The coastal vegetation, the plant species morphology and their density in the beach-dune systems reflect the local disturbance factors influencing, forming or altering aeolian landforms (Hesp and Martínez, 2007). According to the historical regime of physical disturbance, different plant morphologies facilitate the mobility pattern of the surface sediments and the abundance of species (Dangerfield et al., 1998; Stallins, 2002, Stallins, 2005; Stallins and Parker, 2003; Gumbricht et al., 2004; Nield and Baas, 2008; Corenblit et al., 2011).
There is evidence of the relationship between plant species and the formation of coastal foredunes in different coastal climatic regions, in order (greatest to least), according to the distance with respect to the Equator. In temperate zones, plant species, especially grasses, and generally rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plants and glycophytes, can form nebkhas and continuous foredunes (e.g. Ammophila spp., Spinifex spp., Elymus farctus, Austrofestuca littoralis). If the dunes begin as nebkhas, they can grow in size, merge with other nebkhas and eventually form continuous ridges (Hesp, 2002; Hesp and Walker, 2013; Keijsers et al., 2015; Hesp et al., submitted). Most of these species show variable tolerance to the burial of sand, such as Spinifex and Desmoschoenus spiralis in Australia and New Zealand (temperate zone). However, in arid zones, shrub species usually form nebkhas, but not continuous ridges. These species are mainly halophilic adapted to soils with high salinity as well as the lack of fresh water (e.g. Traganum moquinii, Zygophyllum spp., Suaeda spp., Salsola spp.) (Hernández-Cordero et al., 2015, Hernández-Cordero et al., 2017). In this case, the dimensions of the shrub strongly affect the nebkha morphology (El-Bana et al., 2002). For example, on the arid coasts of the Canary Islands, Traganum moquinii is the predominant plant species, which forms nebkha and nebkha fields. It is a nanophanerophyte and shrubby species that survives and thrives where burial by sand occurs (Hernández-Cordero et al., 2012; Viera-Pérez, 2015). Finally, humid tropical coast are normally characterized by continuous foredunes (Doing, 1985), where dune-building species are commonly creeping plants (e.g. Ipomoea pes-caprae, Canavalia rosea) (Arun et al., 1999), or non-rhizomatous woody species (i.e. Scaevola plumieri) (Pammenter, 1983). Hesp et al. (submitted) determined three typical foredune modes exist on many coasts, namely, nebkha, discontinuous foredunes, and continuous foredunes. Given the range of foredune modes present on a particular coast, and the role of climate in determining to a degree foredune development, this paper aims to determine if the climate, especially rainfall, is a controlling factor in determining the mode of foredune formation and the distribution of either continuous or discontinuous ridges or nebkhas along the Great Australian Bight (GAB), which displays a significant east to west and north to south gradient in rainfall. Vegetation data, sand mobility, climatic data and foredune modes are examined along 2668 km of coastline.
Section snippets
Study area
The Great Australian Bight (GAB) (Fig. 1) extends from Esperance (Western Australia, 33°51′40″S 121°53′31″E) to Port Lincoln (South Australia, 34°43′56″S 135°51′31″E), a total of 2668 km of coastline. This large coastal stretch traverses latitudes that range between 34°and 31°, and longitudes between 121° and 135°.
The GAB is part of a passive and divergent continental margin that was formed during the cretaceous separation of Australia and Antarctica, evolving during the subsequent drift to the
Climate data and mobility index
Climate data were downloaded from the national climate databank of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Fig. 1 shows a raster grid 50 km wide and shows total annual rainfall along the GAB coastline. 12 weather stations were selected (Fig. 1, Table 1) due to their proximity to the coast, their data record and their geographic location (latitude and longitude). Monthly mean rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, wind speed and wind direction were used to calculate the mobility indices.
Rainfall and temperature
Fig. 3 illustrates rainfall data across the GAB. The highest rainfall occurs in autumn and winter, especially between May and August, and decreases in spring and summer. The mean maximum temperature occurs in spring and summer and decreases between autumn and winter. While the annual distribution is similar for these sites, the total annual rainfall and the temperature vary. In Eucla and Nullarbor rainfall does not exceed 33 mm in the highest monthly rainfall and the minimum is around 16 mm
Conclusions
This work presents the first study on the occurrence of foredune modes and transgressive dunefields along the Great Australian Bight (GAB) coastline (2668 km) and their relationship with climate, dune mobility and vegetation traits. A marked climatic gradient, and particularly rainfall is shown to be a critical driver of foredune mode and the occurrence of active transgressive dunefields in this paper.
A relationship between latitude and foredune mode is observed spatially and statistically in
Acknowledgements
Patrick Hesp, Graziela Miot da Silva, Levi García-Romero and Carolina Peña-Alonso thank Flinders University, the BEADS Lab and the Hesp Foundation for support. This research was conducted while Leví García-Romero and Carolina Peña-Alonso were research visitors at Flinders University. This work is a contribution of projects CSO2013-43256-R and CSO2016-79673-R (National R & D & I Plan, Spain) co-financed with ERDF funds. The first author is beneficiary of a PhD contract of the Canary Islands
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