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Beach Systems of Balearic Islands: Nature, Distribution and Processes

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The Spanish Coastal Systems

Abstract

The Balearic Islands coast contains 867 beach systems covering 10% of the coast reflecting the different controls of waves, sediments, geological inheritance and human disturbance. The average length of theses beaches are 169 m, raging from 10 m to more than 5 km, which implies that physical boundaries play a major role in beach length and morphology and wave attenuation; a moderate and seasonal wave climate and sediments composed predominantly of medium to coarse marine biogenic carbonate sands. It also describes the regional distribution, together with the occurrence of wave energy, beach sediments, bar systems and dynamics, rip currents, human disturbance and the influence of geological inheritance and marine biota.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from MINECO (AEI-FEDER, UE) projects CGL2013-48441-P, CGL2016-79246-P and CTM2015-66225-C2-2. MC and LP are supported by the regional Balearic Government FPI-CAIB co-financed by the European Social Fund (FSE, UE). VM is supported by FPU programm funded by Ministerio Educadión, Cultura y Deportes and the FSE (UE). Authors would like to acknowledge the support from SOCIB (MICINN-CAIB) and IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) technicians that have contributed significantly to deepen in Balearic Island beach systems knowledge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth Sciences Research Group, Department of Biology, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Cra. Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma (Illes Balears), Spain

    Lluís Gómez-Pujol & Joan J. Fornós

  2. Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Miquel Marquès 21, 07151, Esporles (Illes Balears), Spain

    Alejandro Orfila, Verónica Morales-Márquez, Laura Pereda & Joaquin Tintoré

  3. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015, Palma (Illes Balears), Spain

    Montserrat Compa

  4. SOCIB, Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (MICINN-CAIB), Cra. Valldemossa km 7.1, 07121, Palma (Illes Balears), Spain

    Joaquin Tintoré

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  1. Lluís Gómez-Pujol
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  2. Alejandro Orfila
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  3. Verónica Morales-Márquez
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  4. Montserrat Compa
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  5. Laura Pereda
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  6. Joan J. Fornós
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Correspondence to Lluís Gómez-Pujol .

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain

    Juan A. Morales

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Gómez-Pujol, L. et al. (2019). Beach Systems of Balearic Islands: Nature, Distribution and Processes. In: Morales, J. (eds) The Spanish Coastal Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93169-2_12

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