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The Spanish Coastal Systems pp 585–609Cite as

Aeolian Dune Fields in the Coasts of Asturias and Cantabria (Spain, Nw Iberian Peninsula)

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Abstract

Aeolian dune fields are relatively well represented along the cliff coast of Asturias and Cantabria (NW Iberian Peninsula) (Fig. 25.1; Tables 25.1 and 25.2). Siliciclastic sands are supplied by large rivers to their estuaries and coastal upwelling and nutrients from some estuaries contribute with the formation of carbonate sands, but inherited and currently generating bioclastic sands are important in several stretches; easterly winds produce upwelling in this coast and shelf mainly in spring and summer (Lavín et al. in The Sea 14, 24: 933–1001, 2004). Most of the Cantabria and Asturias dune fields were formed since the mid-Holocene (Flandrian transgression) once the sea level fell and the prograding processes seaward were favored. It is essential to know the evolutionary patterns from this early stage to those that have occurred since the middle of the 20th century as a result of man's intervention through dredging of the estuaries to which they belong. All dune fields of Asturias and Cantabria have been suffered a natural recession due sea level rise and the continuous surge event, increasingly more often. Policy, laws and management must go hand in hand for try to preserve in the best possible way this type of habitats of great importance for the coast.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Oviedo, 33005, Oviedo, Spain

    Germán Flor, Germán Flor-Blanco & Carmen Flores-Soriano

  2. Department of Earth Sciences and Condensed Matter Physics, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain

    Patricio Martínez Cedrún

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden

    Cecilia Borghero

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  1. Germán Flor
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  2. Germán Flor-Blanco
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  3. Patricio Martínez Cedrún
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  4. Carmen Flores-Soriano
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  5. Cecilia Borghero
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Correspondence to Germán Flor .

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

    Juan A. Morales

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Flor, G., Flor-Blanco, G., Cedrún, P.M., Flores-Soriano, C., Borghero, C. (2019). Aeolian Dune Fields in the Coasts of Asturias and Cantabria (Spain, Nw Iberian Peninsula). In: Morales, J. (eds) The Spanish Coastal Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93169-2_25

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